The loudest cheers of the night were sparked by Trump’s promise to fire Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulatory agency that has brought numerous lawsuits against crypto businesses under the Biden administration.
Separately, Trump has promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road dark market, who is currently serving a life sentence. Silk Road, through which people bought and sold drugs and other contraband, was among the first online services to accept bitcoin as payment. The severity of Ulbricht’s sentence is 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 Hahn.
Kahn, the youngest chairman of the Federal Trade Commission at 35, has become a flashpoint in the election campaign. Among Democratic donors, her approach to antitrust enforcement and corporate power was deeply controversial. Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft all faced legal challenges during her tenure, though some were more successful than others.
“Lina Hahn is … someone who is not helping America,” LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic donor Hoffman told CNN in July. Trump donor Elon Musk also expressed his distaste. “She’s going to be fired soon,” he said of Hahn 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 her departure would act as a catalyst for more big tech deals. “Musk’s influence over Trump could also catalyze and accelerate a potential Khan exit,” he said.
Trump hinted vaguely that “something” needs to be done with Google to make the company “fairer.” Vance was more blunt, praising Hahn for a “pretty good job.”
Vance seems to see the split 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 have a say in their own political process, that’s a big problem,” the vice president-elect said in September, citing Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube. example. “I really think there should be an antitrust ruling on this.”
The new Trump administration is unlikely to abandon antitrust cases against Big Tech, Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of the Chamber of Progress, a left-leaning technology trade group, said in a note Wednesday, noting that several were launched during his first mandate. “But he will likely try to use these suits as leverage over the companies to get favorable treatment on speech and content concerns.”
It is unclear whether Khan will serve under Trump. Her team declined to comment Wednesday. Bill Kovacic, former chairman of the FTC, said the chances of that happening in a few weeks are “close to zero.”
Joel Khalili, Morgan Meaker and Zeyi Yang contributed reporting.
