Trump officials vow ‘America first, 5G first’

Top White House officials today held a “5G Summit” with one basic message: How can the Trump administration encourage the private sector to deploy 5G as quickly as possible? Although other US government agencies like the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have long dealt in spectrum and network deployment issues, the White House summit was the first major signal by the Trump administration that it also wants to play an active role in smoothing regulations for 5G rollouts. The summit collected executives from the wireless industry with officials from the Trump administration—including Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Michael Kratsios, deputy US CTO and deputy assistant to the President at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the agency that held the event—along with top House and Senate lawmakers and officials from the FCC and the NTIA.

But Kudlow—who replaced Gary Cohn as Trump's top economic advisor in May—made it clear that the Trump administration wants to give the wireless industry what it needs to deploy 5G quickly. Kudlow said the administration is taking an “America first, 5G first” approach to the issue. Specifically, he said the administration will work toward policies—including lower taxes and deregulation—that promote growth in the private sector. “The White House is behind this free market approach,” he noted. Kudlow also boasted of the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage U.S. economic growth, particularly through corporate tax cuts. “We’re crushing it, we’re absolutely crushing it,” Kudlow said of the overall U.S. economy. “And I want the 5G to be in that crushing it thing.” Other officials speaking publicly at the event included FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the NTIA’s David Redl and House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). Chairman Walden noted that the U.S. needs to protect and encourage the supply chain for 5G. Although he did not discuss any specific policies or positions, he did say that “there are some who think we can simply ban vendors from American markets, but the marketplace for hardware and software is global.”