By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-18 03:36:44 | Updated at 2024-11-18 06:00:27
2 hours ago
President-elect Donald Trump will tap Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he said in a statement on Sunday.
Carr is currently the top Republican on the FCC, an independent agency which regulates interstate and international communications.
Calling him a 'warrior for Free Speech,' Trump first nominated Carr to serve on the FCC in 2017.
'His current term runs through 2029 and, because of his great work, I will now be designating him as permanent Chairman,' Trump, 78, said in a statement.
'Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that stifled Americans' Freedoms and held back our economy,' he added.
Carr, 45, has stuck to his GOP leanings in recent months, continually criticizing the Biden White House's handling of broadband expansion subsidies.
Carr also authored a chapter on the FCC in the Project 2025 planning document, in which he argued how the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
On Friday, Carr posted on X to attack Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft for playing 'central roles in the censorship cartel,' which he said 'must be dismantled.'
President-elect Donald Trump will tap Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he said in a statement on Sunday
On Friday, Carr posted on X to attack Apple, Facebook , Google and Microsoft for playing 'central roles in the censorship cartel,' which he said 'must be dismantled'
Calling him a 'warrior for Free Speech,' Trump first nominated Carr to serve on the FCC in 2017
'The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with 'fact checking' groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives,' Carr wrote.
X owner, Musk, has backed Carr's prospects for the FCC chairmanship — reposted his claims and announcement.
Carr's posting suggests he may tackle Silicon Valley head on as he attempts to expand the powers of the FCC by pushing to oversee companies like Meta and Google, although that might require new legislation to be passed through Congress.
In a recent statement congratulating Trump's election victory, Carr said FCC priorities should include 'reining in Big Tech' and 'ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest.'
'He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,' Trump wrote.
Trump has made it clear he would like to bring the FCC under tighter White House control and use it to punish TV networks that have fact-checked him or otherwise covered him critically.
Carr has backed Trump's call for licenses to be stripped from all three major broadcast networks for coverage choices that he has denounced.
Carr criticized NBC for letting Vice President Kamala Harris appear on Saturday Night Live just before the election and has been a supporter of Elon Musk's efforts to win subsidies for broadband internet service.
Carr has backed Trump's call for licenses to be stripped from all three major broadcast networks for coverage choices that he has denounced
Carr has also been cozying up to Elon Musk. The billionaire entrepreneur is a close ally of Trump
His Starlink satellite internet provider received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that aims to bring high-speed internet to rural homes and businesses.
But the Democratic-led FCC revoked the grant in 2022 when Starlink failed to meet speed requirements and could not prove that would serve enough unconnected rural homes.
Carr opposed the decision, saying how the Biden administration had targeted Musk.
'In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left's top targets: Mr. Musk,' Carr wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last month.
Carr will be able to get started in his role as FCC chairman straight away once Trump enters office on January 20 since he is on the commission already.
Some of Trump's latest selections have landed like lead balloons as he prioritizes loyalists for top jobs.
His decision to nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general drew open shock and alarm from Democrats who worry he will unleash retribution on Trump's opponents and protect his allies from prosecution.
Even Gaetz´s fellow Republican House members, who were meeting in the Capitol when the announcement landed, initially thought the news was a joke.
Another pick that has raised eyebrows was his choice to lead the Defense Department.
Pete Hegseth is a veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and received two bronze stars.
He served as executive director of Concerned Veterans for America and has written several books on the topic.
But he has no experience at the Pentagon or in running an organization that comes close to the size and complexity of the Defense Department.
Pete Hegseth is Trump's choice to lead the Defense Department. Hegseth is a veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and received two bronze stars
Trump's choice of Robert F Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who has pledged to gut federal health research and oversight is the latest example of Trump prioritizing loyalty over expertise
Trump's choice of Robert F Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who has pledged to gut federal health research and oversight, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services was the latest example of Trump prioritizing loyalty over expertise.
Kennedy was a staunch opponent of the very COVID-19 vaccines whose production Trump jumpstarted in 2020.
But he delivered a key endorsement for Trump and helped the Republican broaden his electoral appeal.
While even Trump aides had dismissed Kennedy's chances for getting a Cabinet post given some of his extreme policy views, the president-elect pushed it through anyway, showing he would not submit to voices of caution.
Meanwhile, Trump named Florida senator Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his choice for top diplomat.
Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer.
Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator once called a 'con man' during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals.
Rubio's reputation as a national security hawk, embracing Trumps plan for mass deportation of migrants and knack for polarizing rhetoric is likely to alienate even some U.S. allies in the region unwilling to fall in line with the incoming president's America First foreign policy.
