Donald Trump has nominated Brendan Carr to head the Federal Communications Commission.
Carr is a lawyer and veteran of the commission.
Hes been in public life since 2012 and has been a commissioner since 2017.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr speaks during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Hearing titled Connecting America: Oversight of the FCC, on Capitol Hill on Thursday, March 31, 2022 in Washington, DC.© Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Hes also the author of the FCC section of the much-maligned Project 2025.
He first came to the FCC in 2012 as a lawyer working for then-commissioner Ajit Pai.
He briefly served as the Commissions general counsel in 2017 before Trump appointed him as a member.
Appointing Carr feels like rewarding a loyal soldier.
Its a threat he makes a lot.
Carr has backed Trump on this issue.
He repeated this line of thinking in several cable news appearances and always backed the President.
We need to keep every single remedy on the table.
And well see what they have to say about this.
But it needs to deter this kind of conduct, he said during a Fox News appearance.
Khana wanted a simple yes or no answer.
Thats what Ive done.
Thats what Ill always do.
The overture to Musk is another Carr constant.
The contract was worth $885 million in government subsidies.
The FCC rescinded the contract in 2022 and said that SpaceX couldnt meet its standards.
Carr has repeatedly said this was part of a Biden administration political attack on Musk.
According to Project 2025, Carr wants rural broadband and he wants Big Tech to help pay for it.
The $9 billion Universal Service Fund does a lot of stuff to help build up Americas communications infrastructure.
Carr also wants to rework pieces of Section 230 to help reign in the power of Big Tech.
Carr doesnt want the FCC to eliminate Section 230, but he does want to reign it in.
Quoting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Carr says that courts have given Section 230 too much power.
Rather, its protections apply only when a platform does not remove information provided by someone else.
Carr is big on the FCC making sure that Section 230 protections extend to users as well.
Carr also called for more transparency from Big Tech, in general.
A new Administration should ban [TikTok] on national security grounds, he wrote in Project 2025.
Carr is an old hand at dealing with Trump.
Hes been auditioning for the role of FCC Chair since 2017.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
