Trump Selects Carr as FCC Chairman

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated FCC commissioner Brendan Carr as the next chairman of the communications regulator. Carr is the senior Republican commissioner at the FCC, currently led by Jessica Rosenworcel. She took over from Ajit Pai in 2021 following the change of US administration.

The appointment was widely expected, with analysts predicting deregulation would be the order of the day for the FCC under Carr. In a statement on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the president-elect highlighted the commissioner’s long service at the FCC. Carr had worked with the agency since 2012 before being nominated a commissioner in 2017.

The president-elect noted Carr had fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms and held back the economy claiming the regulatory onslaught had been crippling job creators and innovators. He also mentioned a need to ensure the agency delivers to rural areas.

In a series of posts on X Carr said he was humbled and honored to take the role, before outlining several key priorities. These comprised dismantling the censorship cartel and restoring free speech, enforcing public interest obligations for broadcast media, and ending the FCC’s promotion of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion policies (DEI). On DEI, he noted what had been the agency’s second-highest strategic goal would have its promotion ended next year.

A vocal critic of Big Tech players, earlier this month Carr accused Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft of playing central roles in the censorship cartel. In the same letter, he accused fact-checking groups, website-rating organization NewsGuard, and ad agencies of helping enforce one-sided narratives.