Trump taps crypto enthusiast Paul Atkins to lead the SEC and Gail Slater as the new tech antitrust cop
New York
CNN
—
The crypto and tech communities finally have some clarity on who they'll potentially answer to over the next four years.
On the crypto front, President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is expected to regulate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin with a lighter touch than Gary Gensler, who led the commission under the Biden administration.
Atkins served as co-chairman of the crypto advocacy group Digital Chamber's Token Alliance since 2017.
"Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations," Trump posted on Truth Social. "He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before."
On the tech front, Trump intends to nominate Gail Slater, a former Fox Corporation executive and economic policy adviser in the first Trump administration, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division as Assistant Attorney General.
For tech, a bit to fear with a bit to celebrate
Trump announced his intention to nominate Slater on Wednesday in a post on Truth Social, highlighting his expectations the DOJ will continue to prosecute large tech platforms for alleged competition abuses."
Big Tech has run wild for years," Trump wrote, "stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!"
Trump has long criticized the tech industry. During his first term, Trump's Justice Department sued Google for monopolizing the online search market, a case that the Biden administration saw to completion, resulting this year in the most significant anti-monopoly ruling against a tech giant in a generation.
Now, he wants a longtime Beltway insider to keep up the pressure. Slater didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Slater has a lengthy track record on technology policy. A former legal adviser at the Federal Trade Commission, Slater has handled antitrust investigations involving the tech and pharmaceutical industries. At the time, Slater worked under Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill.
In 2018, Slater went to the Trump White House to develop the administration's policies on 5G wireless telecommunications, privacy and cybersecurity.
Slater has also previously represented Fox as its senior vice president for policy and strategy and, more recently, served as a vice president and deputy general counsel at Roku.
But she has also been a voice for some of the tech industry's largest players, spending more than three years as general counsel at the Internet Association. Although the trade group shut down in 2021, it was considered the most powerful tech industry association of its time, representing Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among others.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
