The Department of Justice seals is seen during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington, May 16, 2023. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump has selected Gail Slater, an Oxford-educated economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, to head up antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department.
Slater was a tech policy adviser on the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, and has been advising his transition team on antitrust and tech policy. Earlier she spent 10 years at the US Federal Trade Commission, including as an adviser to former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill in Barack Obama’s administration.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform.
“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump said. “I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”
Slater didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Slater is seen as a pro-enforcement, populist Republican, particularly when it comes to the tech sector, and her nomination signals a new Trump administration is unlikely to fully back down from the aggressive stance of Joe Biden’s administration. Her boss, Vance, who has represented Ohio in the Senate since 2023, has expressed his support for much of the agenda of outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan.
Slater would replace Biden’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter, who has held the post since 2021 and brought a record number of monopolization cases against companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc., Visa Inc. and others.
Following her FTC stint, Slater joined the Internet Association, a now-defunct trade group for internet companies whose members included Amazon.com Inc. and Google. She moved to the White House during the first Trump administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy with a broad portfolio that included technology, telecom and cyber issues.
Slater was later hired by Fox Corp. and Roku Inc. Earlier this year, she joined Vance’s staff.
With assistance from Leah Nylen.
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