Trump nominates FCC General Counsel Adam Candeub to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit; Candeub, a longtime Big Tech critic, has long sought to challenge Section 230

Adam Candeub authored a Project 2025 chapter calling for a sweeping shake-up of US competition enforcement

Financial Times 2026-07-22 Ella Lee

Context & Ripple Effects

The proposed leadership change extends a recent pattern in which competition-enforcement posts have gone to figures identified with challenging major technology companies, from Biden's nomination of Google critic Jonathan Kanter to the FTC competition-bureau pick who worked on the Google and Apple cases.

It also connects DOJ antitrust leadership to a wider administration debate over platforms: FCC chair Brendan Carr had already argued for an FCC role in reining in Big Tech and floated limits on Section 230 in his earlier appointment as FCC chair.

First-order effects

Candeub's nomination puts a longtime Big Tech critic forward to run the DOJ's antitrust unit, signaling a potentially more interventionist leadership posture to companies under competition scrutiny.
His Project 2025 writing on sweeping competition-enforcement changes gives DOJ staff, businesses and litigants an early policy reference point for how the unit's priorities could be reshaped if he takes the post.

Second-order effects

Big Tech companies and their advisers will need to reassess enforcement risk against a leadership backdrop that combines competition concerns with a public focus on platform-liability policy.
The overlap with the administration's Section 230 debate could further connect companies' antitrust, content-policy and Washington engagement strategies, even though those issues sit in different legal frameworks.

Third-order effects

If personnel choices translate into enforcement priorities, the pattern points to durable pressure on large technology platforms across administrations rather than antitrust policy being defined solely by party change.
The more antitrust leadership is selected for views on platform power and information policy, the more enforcement may become intertwined with broader disputes over how digital intermediaries are governed.

The trend: US technology policy is increasingly treating market power and platform governance as connected fronts in its scrutiny of Big Tech.

Discussion

@ssharmaus Saurabh Sharma on x
Congratulations to Mr. Adam Candeub on his nomination to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. Adam will be an incredible leader at President Trump's DOJ. https://www.whitehouse.gov/...
@lutherlowe Luther Lowe on x
This is a great choice for little tech
@matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x
I know and like Adam Candeub but there's zero reason to trust any Trump appointee. They are all institutionally compelled to lie and justify corruption and bribery.
@brendancarrfcc Brendan Carr on x
I want to congratulate Adam Candeub on his nomination to serve as Assistant Attorney General at the DOJ. From his time serving at the FCC as General Counsel, to his prior government service at the Commerce Department and Justice Department, Candeub has always brought a thoughtfu…
@mrddmia @mrddmia on x
Cheers to my friend and fellow Big Tech critic Adam Candeub, the FTC's general counsel, who President Trump picked to lead the Trump Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Adam is a former big-law partner, senior Trump DOJ official, and law professor. https://www.whitehouse.gov…
@blakesneff Blake Neff on x
Adam Candeub is one of the best professors we have in America and put his career on the line to serve in the first admin. He's a great pick to keep the DOJ pushing back on the use of corporate monopoly power to impose DEI, ESG, and censorship. The Senate should confirm him ASAP.

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