by WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission’s top Republican, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a long-time member of the Commission and previously served as general counsel for the FCC. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated to the commission by both Trump and President Joe Biden.
The FCC is an independent agency overseen by Congress, but Trump has indicated he wants to bring it under tighter control from the White House, including using the agency to punish television networks that expose him in a way and Covering in ways he doesn’t like.
Carr has lately embraced Trump’s ideas on social media and technology. Carr wrote a section about the FCC in “Project 2025,” a sweeping plan to gut the federal workforce and dismantle federal agencies in a second Trump administration, prepared by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he knows nothing about Project 2025, but many of his topics are consistent with his statements.
In a statement congratulating Trump on his victory, Carr said he believes “the FCC will play an important role in reining in Big Tech, ensuring broadcasters act in the public interest and spurring economic growth.”
“Commissioner Carr is a champion of free speech and has fought against regulatory legislation that has stifled Americans’ freedoms and slowed our economy,” Trump said in a statement Sunday. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has crippled America’s job creators and innovators and ensure the FCC delivers for rural America.”
The five-member commission has a 3-2 Democratic majority until Trump is allowed to appoint a new member next year.
Carr has appeared on Fox News Channel, including sharply criticizing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance on “Saturday Night Live” the weekend before the election, claiming the network didn’t give Trump equal time.
Carr, also a prolific editorial writer, wrote about the FCC’s decision to revoke a federal award for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal last month. He said the move could not be explained “by an objective application of the facts, the law or sound policy.”
“In my view, this was nothing more than a regulatory effort against one of the left’s primary targets: Mr. Musk,” Carr wrote.
