President-elect Trump’s selection of Gail Slater to serve as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief is drawing praise from anti-monopoly advocates – who said it sent a strong signal Google and Apple will remain under significant pressure as blockbuster cases against them play out.
The Irish-born Slater is an Oxford-trained attorney and antitrust hawk who served as a top economic adviser over the last year to Vice President-elect JD Vance. During that time, Vance has called for Google to be broken up and heaped praise on FTC Chair Lina Khan, a Democrat, for going after Big Tech.
“Google should be shaking in its boots” after Slater’s selection, according to Mike Davis, a former top Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer and founder of the conservative Internet Accountability Project.
“Gail Slater is a close personal friend and President Trump’s perfect choice to lead the antitrust division,” Davis told The Post. “She is a rare combination of brilliant antitrust attorney and ‘America First’ Trump loyalist.”
As head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, Slater will inherit a slate of high-profile battles. She will spearhead the agency’s push for remedies after a federal judge ruled in August that Google has an illegal monopoly over online search.
The DOJ recently called for Google to be forced to sell its Chrome web browser, though Trump has expressed skepticism about a breakup.
Slater will replace current DOJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter, who also drew praise from some conservatives for his aggressive crackdown on Big Tech giants.
“AAG Jonathan Kanter helped steer the Justice Department Antitrust Division through a historic rebuild and by taking on unchecked Big Tech monopolies that are stifling innovation and raising prices on American families,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project.
“It is our sincere hope that the Trump Administration will build on that success, and Gail Slater is a strong candidate to continue that work,” Haworth added.
Elsewhere, Matt Stoller, an outspoken Google critic and researcher at the American Economic Liberties Project, wrote on X that Slater’s selection “is a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on Big Tech.”
Aside from her work with Vance, Slater has recently been advising the Trump transition team on tech and antitrust policy. She also served on the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term in office – which is when the DOJ first brought its landmark case against Google’s search empire.
Slater did in-house stints at Fox Corp. and Roku and also had a lengthy tenure as an attorney at the FTC, where she sought to block Whole Foods’ acquisition of grocer Wild Oats and later served as an adviser to then-FTC Commissioner Julie Brill.
Despite being viewed a Big Tech antagonist, Slater also worked at the now-defunct trade group Internet Association, which once represented the likes of Google and Amazon.
The DOJ also has a pending case targeting Google’s alleged digital advertising monopoly and another targeting Tim Cook-led Apple’s iPhone dominance.
As The Post reported, Slater had also been seen as a top candidate to serve as Trump’s Federal Trade Commission chair before landing the DOJ gig.
Trump signaled that Slater will take the fight to Big Tech in his Truth Social post announcing her selection.
“Big Tech has run wild for years, 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 wrote.
“I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership,” Trump added.
