Trump’s FCC Pick Wants to Intimidate Broadcasters and Enrich Trump Allies

Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/AP

During this year’s campaign, Donald Trump disowned Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation agenda that would transform the federal government’s enforcement powers into political weapons while selling off the rest to the highest bidder, by swearing he didn’t know who was behind it. But now that voting is over, he’s finding the plan a handy way to fill positions in his incoming administration.

On Sunday, Trump announced he would nominate Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission. Carr, already an FCC commissioner, was the only sitting member of government to author a chapter of Project 2025.

It’s not hard to predict what Carr will do with the FCC, since he wrote it all down. In Project 2025, in posts on X, and in interviews with conservative outlets including Fox News, Carr has laid out a vision for an FCC that would deregulate most broadcasters and telecommunications companies, while cracking down on and intimidating traditional media, growing the reach of conservative media, and unleashing disinformation on social media platforms. The result: An information ecosystem tilted further in Trump’s favor.

It’s a baseline for democracy that people are able to obtain accurate information. And it is a real threat to democracy when the government begins to target and punish the media for publishing disfavored viewpoints. Yet that is precisely what Carr has threatened to do.

In the days before Trump tapped Carr, the FCC commissioner seemed to be auditioning for the body’s top job by attacking NBC for featuring Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live days before the election. In a series of posts on X, Carr alleged that the appearance violated the FCC’s “equal time” rule, which requires broadcasters in certain circumstances to provide candidates the opportunity to claim time on its airwaves if it gives such time to their opposition. But NBC did just that, and no rule was broken.

Nevertheless, Carr worked to create a sense of scandal over Harris’ appearance. That Sunday, Carr appeared on Fox News to threaten that the FCC could pull NBC broadcast licenses: “One of the remedies ultimately would be license revocation if we find that it’s egregious,” he said. In another appearance later that day, he offered a broader warning: “Every single option needs to be on the table for the FCC. Because we not only need to respond to this if it turns out to be as clear a violation as it looks like, but it sends a message to deter anybody from doing this again, whether it’s to benefit a Republican or a Democrat.”

While it could be argued Carr was simply warning broadcasters not to violate FCC rules, there’s a more ominous message if you read between the lines: As a FCC commissioner—and now, likely its chair—Carr is ready to use the FCC to punish media companies for coverage he dislikes. It’s a chilling example of how Carr could, over the next four years, wield the commission’s powers to squash dissent and create an environment of self-censorship among media organizations. Indeed, as the FCC’s chair, Carr could have a significant impact on the information environment both through legal means and the chilling effect of his threats—even if his words are not backed up by actual authority.

For example, Carr’s Project 2025 chapter rails against viewpoint discrimination by Big Tech, even though the FCC has no authority over social media platforms. But that might not matter. “It has an extremely chilling effect when a government actor and an FCC incoming chair says he’s going to go after tech platforms,” says Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press, a nonpartisan group that advocates for a media ecosystem that fosters democracy. “Hate speech is on the rise on these platforms, in my opinion, because the leaders of those platforms don’t want to get into legal troubles with Donald Trump.”

Despite Carr’s criticism of tech companies, he is generally pro-business and anti-regulation. He calls for ending net neutrality and allowing media companies to grow their market share. That kind of relaxation of the commission’s anti-consolidation rules could help Sinclair, the conservative broadcast company, execute its plans to buy up as many local TV stations as possible, increasing the MAGA movement’s control of local news.

Then there is Carr’s relationship with Elon Musk. If his contribution to Project 2025 and on-air media bullying weren’t enough to get Trump’s attention, his burgeoning friendship with the world’s richest man and Trump mega donor surely didn’t hurt.

Carr appears to have initiated a public bromance with Musk. As Politico detailed last month, Carr has used both his official position to support Musk and his companies, as well as his words in interviews and on X. In turn, Musk has promoted Carr’s posts on the platform he owns, and even took a picture with him when Carr visited a SpaceX facility in Texas.

“It poses a conflict of interest that Brendan Carr sucked up to Elon Musk as a strategy to get appointed by Donald Trump,” says González, “because of the amount of public funding that Musk receives from the federal government and from the FCC in particular.”

With Carr as FCC chair, the world’s richest man stands to get a whole lot richer. During Trump’s first term, the FCC awarded Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, $885 million to bring internet access to rural areas. But under the Biden administration, the FCC, worried the funding might be poorly spent, stripped related contracts from Starlink and several other companies. Carr criticized that decision and claimed it was political, and while that pot of money is likely gone, there’s an even bigger one Starlink could drain. Carr, who has said he wants the government to fund Starlink’s work, recently told Politico that he believes about a third of some $42 billion in federal funds set aside to boost broadband should go to satellite internet providers like Starlink.

With Carr as chairman, Musk’s $200 million bet on electing Trump could turn out to be an incredible bargain. From promises of revenge upon his enemies to opportunities for self-enrichment schemes, the project of the new Trump administration is almost certainly a combination of weaponization and plunder. Based on his actions thus far, Carr appears ready to aid in both endeavors.