President-elect Donald Trump went on another rant of job advertisements on Tuesday, choosing Andrew Ferguson as the next chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Ronald Johnson was appointed ambassador to Mexico and Kimberly Guilfoyle to be ambassador to Greece.
Ferguson, already one of five FTC commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, which became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley blocking corporate acquisitions worth billions of dollars and suing Amazon and Meta alleging anti-competitive behavior.
“Andrew has a proven track record of opposing big tech censorship and protecting free speech in our great country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the president of the “FTC more in favor of innovation in our country History of the country”.
Tom Barrack was chosen as a candidate for ambassador to Turkey. Barrack, a wealthy financier, met Trump in the 1980s while helping to negotiate Trump’s purchase of the famed Plaza Hotel. He was accused of using his personal access to the former president to secretly promote UAE interests, but was acquitted of all charges in a federal trial in 2022.
Trump called him a “highly respected and experienced voice of reason.”
Johnson, not the Republican senator, was ambassador to El Salvador during the first Trump administration. His nomination comes just as the president-elect has been threatening rates on Mexican imports and the mass deportation of migrants who have arrived at the US-Mexico border. Johnson is also a former US Army veteran and was with the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the 2020 Trump campaign fundraiser and is engaged to Don Jr. in 2020. Trump called her “a close friend and ally” and praised her “sharp intelligence that makes her supremely qualified.” Guilfoyle was on stage with his family on election night.
“I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and has always wanted to serve the country as an ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” Don Jr. posted.
Ambassador positions must be approved by the US Senate.
Guilfoyle said in a social media post that she was “honored to accept President Trump’s nomination to serve as the next ambassador to Greece and look forward to the support of the United States Senate.”
Trump also announced Tuesday that he had selected Jacob Helberg as the next assistant secretary of state for economic growth, energy and environment, and Dan Bishop as deputy budget director in the Office of Budget and Management.
Khan’s replacement at the FTC likely means the commission will operate with a lighter touch when it comes to antitrust enforcement. The new presidency is expected to appoint new directors of the FTC’s antitrust and consumer protection divisions.
“These changes will likely make the FTC more pro-business than it has been in recent years, although to what extent remains to be determined,” wrote Anthony DiResta, a consumer protection attorney at Holland & Knight. in a recent analysis.
Deals that were blocked by the Biden administration could find new life with Trump at the helm.
For example, the new direction could be more open aa merger proposal between the nation’s two largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons, which forged a $24.6 billion deal to combine by 2022. Two judges halted the merger Tuesday night.
The FTC had filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this year to block the merger, claiming the deal would eliminate competition, leading to higher prices and lower wages for workers. The two companies say a merger would help them lower prices and compete against bigger rivals like Walmart.
One of the judges said the FTC had shown it was likely to prevail at the administrative hearing.
However, given widespread public concern about high grocery prices, the Trump administration may not completely abandon the FTC’s efforts to block the deal, some experts have said.
And the FTC can continue to scrutinize Big Tech companies for any anti-competitive behavior. Many Republican politicians have accused companies like Meta of censoring conservative views, and some officials in Trump’s orbit, most notably Vice President-elect JD Vance, have previously expressed support for Khan’s scrutiny of Big Tech companies.