US president-elect Donald Trump has described FCC member Brendan Carr as a “warrior for free speech.” Carr opposed a decision to revoke a grant for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service.
US president-elect Donald Trump on Sunday nominated Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) media regulator.
In his statement on the nomination, Trump described Car as a “warrior for free speech.”
It comes days after Trump nominated Robert F Kennedy Jr. to be the head of the US’ federal health agency.
What else did Trump say about Carr?
Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said.
Carr said in a post on the platform X that he was “humbled and honored” to accept the role.
In a separate post, he said: “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”
Carr has agreed with Trump’s promises to punish broadcasters for what they say is political bias and has also called for the regulation of tech giants such as Meta, Google and Apple.
He drafted the FCC chapter of Project 2025, an agenda published by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Carr is a longtime member of the FCC and served previously as the body’s general counsel.
He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and outgoing US President Joe Biden to the commission.
Carr opposed revocation of Starlink grant
The New York Times reported that billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service had received an $885 million (€840 million) grant in late 2020 from the FCC, but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service could not prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes.
Carr “vociferously” opposed the decision, the newspaper reported.
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” Carr said of the decision in an article for the Wall Street Journal last month.
Musk donated over $119 million to a political action committee, or PAC, for electing Trump and spent weeks before the election encouraging people in key battleground states to go to the polls.
Credit: DW News
