Trump chooses FCC commissioner Brendan Carr to lead agency

The U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Federal Communications Commission commissioner Brendan Carr will chair the agency. "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," said Trump in his statement.

Carr, 45, authored the chapter on the FCC. in the conservative Project 2025 planning document. There, he argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft, that, according to him, promote "Orwellian" censorship law in the U.S.

Trump added that Carr "will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."

Since the announcement, Carr has thanked Trump for the pick and posted on X: "We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans."

He has also vowed to end promotion of Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Accessibility: "The FCC’s most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second highest strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI."

Carr also wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last month decrying an FCC decision to revoke a federal award for Elon Musk’s satellite service, Starlink. He said the move could not be explained “by any objective application of the facts, the law or sound policy.”

“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” wrote Carr.