How Trump’s FTC Chairman Is Bringing a MAGA Approach to Antitrust Enforcement

Andrew Ferguson started his legal career with such a conventional antitrust practice—defending companies facing investigations and allegations of anticompetitive conduct—that his parents joked he was a “pro-trust lawyer.” A decade later, Ferguson’s rapid ascendance through Republican circles has put him in charge of the Federal Trade Commission, where he will try to chart a new course for antitrust enforcement: mixing MAGA populism with strains of the GOP’s traditional lighter-touch approach to regulation. While Ferguson has been outspoken in criticizing his progressive predecessor Lina Khan’s approach to business as too heavy-handed, he is also part of a populist GOP wing that shares her suspicions of corporate power, especially as a threat to personal liberty. In his first weeks on the job, Ferguson disappointed Wall Street by announcing that he would maintain Khan’s tough merger-oversight guidelines, which gave enforcers more leeway to block deals. He also shares her belief that antitrust enforcement should address a broader range of problems than just the classic concerns about consumer prices and the supply of goods. Still, the similarities only go so far, and Ferguson has brought a distinctly Trumpian bent to the chairman’s office.