Trump Picks Brendan Carr, Author of FCC Section in Project 2025, to Lead FCC
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the author of the Federal Communications Commission section in Project 2025 and the senior Republican on the FCC, to run the agency that regulates interstate and international communications over TV, cable and Internet.
Carr has served on the FCC for years and was nominated to the commission by both Trump and President Joe Biden, but his pick to run the agency was met with scrutiny from the left, as he’s one of the authors of the Project 2025 document that outlines how Trump and the GOP purportedly plan to upend the federal government.
The commissioner has also closely aligned himself with Trump ally Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite internet provider was awarded an $885 million grant from the FCC in late 2020. That grant was revoked by the FCC in 2022 because it failed to meet speed requirements and couldn’t prove it would serve enough unconnected rural homes, the FCC said. Carr opposed the decision, calling it “regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets” in a WSJ opinion piece.
The pick also has additional weight, given Trump’s threats to revoke the broadcast licenses of CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox at various times, often due to negative coverage of him. Current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s dangerous threats.
“While the FCC has authority to provide licenses for television and radio, it is pretty fundamental that we do not take them away because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes any kind of content or coverage,” Rosenworcel told NPR in October.
In his Sunday statement, Trump hailed Carr as a “warrior for Free Speech.”
“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. He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” he said.
The five-person FCC currently has a 3-2 Democratic majority, but that will change next year when Trump gets to appoint a new member.
“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” Carr said in an X post on Sunday. He also promised to end the FCC’s promotion of DEI.
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