President Trump’s nomination of tech critic Gail Slater to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division comes amid controversy over a series of last-minute enforcement actions by recently departed acting antitrust chief, leftist activist Doha Mekki.
President Trump has nominated Gail Slater to lead the antitrust division at the Justice Department. Slater has a strong record against Big Tech, having served as an aide to JD Vance in the Senate and advising President Trump on tech and telecommunications policy during the first term. Many populist Republicans, including Vance and Josh Hawley, also supported Biden’s antitrust chief, Jonathan Kanter, for continuing the work of the first Trump administration with lawsuits against Apple and Google.
Slater will almost certainly continue these lawsuits against Big Tech. However, after Kanter resigned on December 18, his woke deputy Doha Mekki took over as acting antitrust chief and pushed through many radical actions in the last weeks of Biden’s lame-duck presidency.
Mekki has impeccable credentials as a leftist extremist. Left-wing academic Zephyr Teachout praised a “brilliant piece by Doha Mekki on the long and important relationship between antitrust and racial justice.” Teachout was referencing an October 29 speech by Mekki, in which she argued that antitrust law was needed to address “robust political and social liberties for all” rather than focusing on “contractual restraints, property rights, and industrial relations.”
Mekki repeatedly invoked W.E.B. Dubois, a black Marxist thinker to further her argument that antitrust laws must be used against what she considers racism. Dubois also argued that “the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy,”
In the final weeks of the Biden administration, Mekki issued rules addressing “HR” policies, which typically have nothing to do with antitrust policy. She issued a last-minute lawsuit against six major landlords, in line with the Biden administration’s blaming AI and landlords rather than his own inflationary policies for high rents. She sued KKR over paperwork violations. KKR responded that the Justice Department was rushing to “start enforcement actions in the final days of the current administration.”
Most significantly, she filed a lawsuit just days before Trump became president to Block Amex GBT from purchasing Carlson Travel, a decision in line with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, who is also suing them.
Carlson Travel is a broker that has struggled due to technological advances and the crippling effect of COVID and Biden’s long lockdowns. The company just emerged from bankruptcy in 2021, with revenues down over 50 percent since the COVID lockdowns. Almost all industry experts note the company is still hanging by a thread and could shut down with 9,000 jobs at risk. Somehow, this became a priority for Mekki before the Trump administration could take over.
Notably, none of Mekki’s actions have anything to do with countering Big Tech. Carlson Travel was acquired for $570 million—less than a drop in the bucket when compared to the market caps of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple that have been on the DOJ’s radar for years for a wide variety of anti-competitive actions.
The Trump administration must review the flurry of last-minute lawsuits filed during the transition period. These enforcement actions will need thorough evaluation under Slater’s leadership, with their continuation likely depending on whether they align with the incoming administration’s priorities and enforcement philosophy, as determined by President Trump and Attorney General Bondi.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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