Trump Nominates Gail Slater to Lead DOJ’s Antitrust Division

The Department of Justice building in Washington on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gail Slater as assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Antitrust Division on Dec. 4, with goals to rein in “Big Tech”  and “Make America Competitive Again.”

“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech,” Trump said in his announcement on Truth Social.

“I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”

Slater is already a familiar face in the Trump camp. She served as an adviser to Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), now the vice president-elect, and she served in Trump’s National Economic Council during his first term. She also worked at the Federal Trade Commission.

In the private sector, Slater worked at Fox and Roku.

“Gail will help ensure that our competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies,” Trump said.

The DOJ’s Antitrust Division describes itself as a promoter of free market competition by enforcing laws that protect Americans’ economic freedoms and opportunities.

It recently filed a suit blocking UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s attempt to acquire a rival home health and hospice services company named Amedisys Inc. for $3.3 billion.

“Eliminating the competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys would harm patients who receive home health and hospice services, insurers who contract for home health services, and nurses who provide home health and hospice services,” the DOJ said in a Nov. 12 statement.

Antitrust laws, the DOJ states on its website, are intended to “prohibit a variety of practices that restrain trade, such as price-fixing conspiracies, corporate mergers whose effect may be to substantially lessen the competitive vigor of particular markets, interlocking directorates which create a risk of collusion, and predatory acts designed to achieve or maintain monopoly power.”

Slater will replace current Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, and she will work under Pam Bondi, Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general, pending Senate approval.

She has yet to make a public comment on the matter.

Slater is one of several nominations announced by Trump on Dec. 4. They include David A. Warrington as assistant to the president and counsel to the president; Monica Elizabeth Crowley as ambassador, assistant secretary of state, and chief of protocol of the United States; Paul Atkins as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Michael William Faulkender as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury; and Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.