Trump aims to remake Federal Trade Commission with two picks

Andrew Ferguson, one of two current GOP commissioners on the FTC, would succeed Chair Lina Khan

- Dave Michaels

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday selected Andrew Ferguson to lead the Federal Trade Commission, elevating a Republican lawyer who is likely to abandon the Biden administration's liberal approach to policing mergers while keeping the heat on big technology companies.

Ferguson, one of two current GOP commissioners on the five-member FTC, would succeed Chair Lina Khan, a progressive hero who sought to flex the commission's enforcement muscle in ways not seen in decades. She challenged a range of mergers, as well as business practices by dominant companies. Her term has expired, and she is set to step down from the commission soon.

While both Khan and Ferguson share a deep skepticism of the biggest technology companies, they arrived at the issue differently. Trump's pick, like many other Republicans, has criticized the influence that social-media and other tech firms have over public debate.

As chair, Ferguson could pivot some of the antitrust enforcement agenda toward cracking down on tech companies accused of stifling free political expression.

"Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country," Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social, his social-media platform.

In his own statement on X, Ferguson said he would work to "end Big Tech's vendetta against competition and free speech."