President-elect Trump’s pick of Gail Slater to serve as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief is drawing praise from antitrust lawyers — who said it sent a strong signal that Google and Apple will remain under significant pressure as the cases successful against them are being developed.
The Irish-born Slater is an Oxford-trained lawyer and antitrust hawk who served as a senior economic adviser last year to Vice President-elect JD Vance. During that time, Vance has called for Google to be broken up and praised FTC Chairman Lina Khan, a Democrat, for going after Big Tech.
“Google should be shaking in its boots” after Slater’s selection, according to Mike Davis, a former senior counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and founder of the conservative Internet Accountability Project.
“Gail Slater is a close personal friend and President Trump’s perfect choice to lead the antitrust division,” Davis told The Post. “She is a rare combination of brilliant antitrust lawyer and Trump loyalist America First.”
As head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, Slater will inherit a number of high-profile battles. She will lead the agency’s push for legal remedies after a federal judge ruled in August that Google has an illegal monopoly over Internet search.
The DOJ recently called for Google to be forced to sell its Chrome web browser, although Trump has expressed skepticism about a divestment.
Slater will replace the DOJ’s current antitrust chief, Jonathan Kanter, who also drew praise from some conservatives for his aggressive crackdown on Big Tech giants.
“AAG Jonathan Kanter helped lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division through a historic restructuring and taking on the unchecked Big Tech monopolies that are stifling innovation and driving up prices for American families,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Antitrust Project. Technical Supervision.
“It is our sincere hope that the Trump administration will build on that success, and Gail Slater is a strong candidate to continue that work,” Haworth added.
Elsewhere, Matt Stoller, an outspoken Google critic and researcher at the American Economic Freedoms Project, wrote in X that Slater’s selection “is a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on Big Tech.”
In addition to her work with Vance, Slater has recently advised the Trump transition team on technology and antitrust policy. She also served on the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term — which is when the DOJ first brought its landmark case against Google’s search empire.
Slater worked in-house at Fox Corp. and Roku and also had a long tenure as an attorney at the FTC, where she sought to block Whole Foods’ acquisition of grocer Wild Oats and later served as counsel to then-FTC Commissioner Julie. Brill.
Despite being considered an antagonist of Big Tech, Slater also worked at the now-defunct Internet Association trade group, which once represented Google and Amazon.
The DOJ also has a pending case targeting Google’s alleged digital advertising monopoly and another targeting Tim Cook-led Apple’s iPhone dominance.
As The Post reported, Slater had also been seen as a front-runner to serve as Trump’s Federal Trade Commission chairman before landing the DOJ gig.
Trump signaled that Slater will take the fight to Big Tech in his Social Truth post announcing her pick.
“Big Tech has been running amok for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to strike at the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech! ” Trump wrote.
“I was proud to fight these abuses in my first term, and our Justice Department’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership,” Trump added.
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