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Trump picks Brendan Carr as Chair of FCC; All you need to know about co-author of Project 2025
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as its chair, he said in a statement.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as its chair, he said in a statement.
Carr has served at the agency since 2012, including as an adviser to a later chair, Ajit Pai, and has worked as its general counsel. Trump during his first presidency nominated Carr to the FCC in 2017.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement.
The commission, an independent agency overseen by Congress, regulates interstate and international communications and implements and enforces US communications law and regulations.
In a statement after Trump’s election victory, Carr highlighted his priorities, saying that the agency should have a “an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth.”
He reiterated those points in a chapter for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 manifesto seeking to influence policy in the second Trump administration. Carr recommended that the FCC limit the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Act to crack down on what conservatives perceive as Big Tech content-moderation abuses.
Who is Brendan Carr?
Carr has aligned himself publicly with Elon Musk, traveling to Texas to attend a rocket launch for SpaceX, the billionaire’s space exploration company. Since joining the FCC, he has also advocated for it to be “technology neutral” when it allocates broadband subsidy funding, making more room for satellite providers to compete alongside wired internet providers for federal broadband dollars.
Carr has also said video-sharing platform TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., should be banned in the US. Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order during his last presidency but has now suggested he opposes a ban.
As a commissioner, Carr has worked to accelerate the buildout of high-speed networks and leads a telehealth initiative for low-income Americans and veterans, according to the agency. Carr has been confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times.
“He was a brilliant advisor and General Counsel and has been a superb Commissioner, and I’m confident he will be a great FCC Chairman,” Pai wrote on X.
