Skip to content Skip to footer

Wall Street Donors Are Reportedly Pushing Biden to Fire FTC Chair

The Federal Trade Commission has taken legal action against several major merger proposals under Lina Khan’s leadership.

FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan testifies during the House Judiciary Committee hearing in Rayburn Building on July 13, 2023.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan’s efforts to challenge corporate consolidation across the U.S. economy — from gaming to pharmaceuticals to semiconductors — have drawn vocal outrage from industry-backed Republican lawmakers and other mouthpieces for big business.

And now, according to the Financial Times, some of the Democratic Party’s Wall Street donors are privately calling on President Joe Biden to fire Khan if he wins reelection in 2024.

“Anybody talking to dealmakers over the past year or so will have noticed that barely anyone has been capable of hiding their loathing for Khan,” wrote FT’s James Fontanella-Khan. “In private, financiers accuse her of being anti-American and against business. Several Wall Street donors to the Democratic Party are using their position of influence to quietly lobby Biden to drop Khan if he gets reelected, according to people briefed on the matter. That’s how badly they want her out of the FTC.”

Wall Street spent over $74 million in support of Biden in 2020 and industry executives — at the urging of the president’s team — have hosted fundraisers this year for his reelection campaign.

Under Khan’s leadership, the FTC has taken legal action against several prominent merger proposals — including Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, a case the agency paused after recent court defeats. The FTC has also helped rewrite pro-consolidation merger guidelines that were established during the Reagan era, launched a probe into Big Tech’s cloud computing businesses, and proposed a ban on exploitative non-compete agreements.

Additionally, as soon as this month, the FTC is expected to file a major antitrust lawsuit against the online retail behemoth Amazon, which Khan has long argued is a monopoly.

The Khan-led FTC’s proactive approach to taking on entrenched power that has worsened inequality and harmed workers has predictably angered corporate America and its GOP allies in Congress, who used a recent hearing to attack Khan as a “bully.”

Some of the Republican Party’s most outspoken critics of Khan are funded by Big Tech.

The Wall Street Journal’s right-wing editorial board has also taken on a major role in fueling the outrage, running dozens of pieces this year attacking Khan’s work.

FT’s James Fontanella-Khan argued that the widespread “animus” toward Khan in corporate America “might indicate she is having an impact despite the setbacks.”

“Khan has an egalitarian vision of competition law that seeks to improve the well-being of citizens beyond their roles as consumers,” he added. “The Amazon case will be a big test.”

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 500 new monthly donors in the next 10 days.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy