The most raucous cheers of the night came from Trump’s promise to fire Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulatory agency that has filed a series of lawsuits against crypto companies under the Biden administration.
Separately, Trump promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road darknet, who is currently serving a life sentence. Silk Road, where people bought and sold drugs and other contraband, was one of the first websites to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. The severity of Ulbricht’s sentence is widely considered disproportionate by bitcoiners, who have long called for his release.
Antitrust
An early indicator of the relationship the Trump administration intends to have with Gigantic Tech will be the fate of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.
Khan, the youngest-ever FTC chairman (35), became a flashpoint in the election campaign. Among Democratic donors, her approach to antitrust enforcement and corporate power was deeply controversial. During her tenure, Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft all faced legal challenges, although some were more successful than others.
“Lina Khan is… a person who is not helping America” – Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Democratic donor he told CNN in July. Trump donor Elon Musk also expressed his reluctance. “She will be released soon,” he added he said Khan last week.
Dan Ives, an analyst at financial services firm Wedbush, called Khan a “nightmare for the tech sector,” adding that there was a belief among analysts that her departure would be a catalyst for more Gigantic Tech deals. “Musk’s influence on Trump could also catalyze and accelerate Khan’s potential departure,” he said.
Trump vaguely suggested that “something” needs to be done about Google to make the company “more equitable.” Vance was more emphatic, praising Khan for “doing a pretty good job“
Vance appears to see the breakups as a solution to what he says is Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives. “When companies like Facebook and Google censor American citizens, making it harder for them to have a say in their own political processes, this is a serious problem” – Vice President-elect he said in September, citing Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube as an example. “I think there should be an antitrust solution.”
The fresh Trump administration is unlikely to abandon its antitrust investigations against Gigantic Tech, Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a left-leaning technology trade group, said in a speech. note on Wednesday, noting that several of them began during his first term. “However, he will likely try to use these lawsuits as leverage against companies to obtain favorable treatment on speech and content issues.”
It is unclear whether Khan will serve Trump. Her team declined to comment Wednesday. Bill Kovacic, former chairman of the FTC, said the chances of this happening within a few weeks are “close to zero“
Joel Khalili, Morgan Meaker and Zeyi Yang contributed reporting.