FCC Commissioner Carr is President Trump's unexpected ally in the fight against tech

He rails against the "far left's" hoaxes. He says the World Health Organization has been “beclowned” over its response to the coronavirus. And he describes a “secret and partisan surveillance machine” run by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA). Those aren't President Donald Trump's words. They came from Brendan Carr, the junior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, who is embracing a flavor of distinctly Trumpian rhetoric that could help him leapfrog his way to the chairmanship of the five-member regulatory agency.

The FCC, though it has no direct authority over social media, could play a key role in assisting President Trump's efforts to rein in the power of Twitter and other online companies. And Commissioner Carr has spent months echoing some of the president's favorite rhetoric, from hammering the alleged partisan biases of Silicon Valley tech giants to accusing Beijing's Communist leaders of allowing the coronavirus’ spread.

If the goal was getting on President Trump’s radar, he succeeded. Within hours, President Trump tweeted Commissioner Carr’s interview with Lou Dobbs from his personal account, as did the official White House Twitter account. President Trump also retweeted Commissioner Carr’s statement praising the executive order. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, has also shared Commissioner Carr’s smackdowns of social media companies. And it’s not a first, either. Earlier in May, the White House retweeted Commissioner Carr accusing Politico of spreading “Communist propaganda” by publishing an article that quoted Chinese social media users' mockery of President Trump's handling of the pandemic.

“I just think it’s unfortunate when an FCC official goes way out of his lane just to try to audition to be the chairman in a possible second Trump administration,” said Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn. “I’ve been very shocked by how far out on a limb he’s gone to try to get the White House's attention.”