The loudest applause of the night was sparked by Trump’s promise to fire Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulatory agency that has filed a series of lawsuits against cryptocurrency companies under the Biden administration.
Separately, Trump has promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the dark web market Silk Road, who is currently serving a life sentence. Silk Road, through which people bought and sold drugs and other contraband, was one of the first online services to accept bitcoins as 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 Big Tech will be the fate of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.
Khan, the youngest chairman of the FTC at 35, became a flashpoint in the election campaign. Among Democratic donors, his approach to antitrust enforcement and corporate power was deeply controversial. Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft faced legal challenges during his tenure, although some were more successful than others.
“Lina Khan is… a person who does not help America,” said Hoffman, a Linkedin co-founder and Democratic donor. he told CNN in July. Elon Musk, a Trump donor, also expressed his displeasure. “She will be fired soon,” he said. saying from Khan last week.
Dan Ives, an analyst at financial services firm Wedbush, described Khan as a “nightmare for the tech sector,” adding that there was a belief among analysts that his departure would act as a catalyst for more deals with Big Tech. “Musk’s influence over Trump could also catalyze and accelerate a potential Khan exit,” he said.
Trump has suggested, vaguely, that “something” should be done about Google, to make the company “fairer.” Vance has been more explicit, 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 you have companies like Facebook and Google censoring American citizens, making it difficult for Americans to speak in their own political process, that is a major problem,” the vice president-elect said. saying in September, citing Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube as an example. “I think there should be an antitrust solution.”
A new Trump administration is unlikely to abandon antitrust cases against Big Tech companies, Adam Kovacevich, executive director of the Progress Chamber, a left-leaning technology trade group, said in a memorandum Wednesday, noting that several of them started during his first term. “But he will likely try to use these lawsuits as leverage over companies to obtain favorable treatment on issues of speech and content.”
It is unclear whether Khan would serve under the Trump administration. His team declined to comment Wednesday. Bill Kovacic, former FTC chairman, said the chances of that happening beyond a few weeks were “close to zero.”
Joel Khalili, Morgan Meaker and Zeyi Yang contributed reporting.
