The antitrust lawsuit against Meta was started in the very last days of the first Trump administration, but it was zealously pursued by Lina Khan, who never met a merger or acquisition she liked while she was FTC chair under Joe Biden.
Thankfully, Lina is gone, but alas, the current Trump-appointed chair of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson, refused to drop the case - forcing a seven-week trial earlier this year.
What a waste of taxpayer money. Ferguson is directly contradicting Trump’s directive that the U.S. government should be supporting our “great and globally dominant tech companies.” Ferguson is playing into the hands of China and Europe by trying to tear them down.
The FTC's loss over Meta is yet another nail in the coffin of Lina Khan's anti-business crusade. She has lost so many antitrust actions in court that the Wall Street Journal has asked: "Does Lina Khan Ever Win a Case?"
Although she left office in January, Khan will soon have a new perch to practice her economic pyromania. This week, we noted she is now co-chair of socialist Zohran Mamdani's mayoral transition team.
The good news is that Khan is such a fanatic that she often overreaches and alienates even some of her allies. Her imperious and erratic management style prompted many liberals to leave the FTC staff. One former official openly mocked the approach she wanted FTC lawyers to take: "What am I going to do? Go to court and say, 'This cement merger threatens democracy'? ... The whole approach is so incoherent."
So while Khan may bring her Inspector Clouseau imitation to her likely role as Mamdani's economic enforcer, she can - like Clouseau - still wreak a lot of havoc. During her reign of error at the FTC, many corporate boards of directors turned down good ideas because they didn't want to waste time and money in court fighting her.
We fear that in New York City, she will throw that same wet blanket over what until now has been the world's leading financial center.
