Trump’s New Pick for the FTC Will Likely MAGA-fy the Agency

Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson has deep ties to the conservative judicial movement but not an easy-to-define ideology on antitrust.

FTC Building

Alex Brandon/AP

Donald Trump’s new pick for Federal Trade Commission chair, current Republican Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, is an ideological wild card.

His stated ideas don’t fall cleanly into the anti-consolidated-corporate-power-on-principle camp, nor does he represent a hard reversion to the more hands-off approach of the FTC of the Reagan era. Some of his proposals are more accurately described as simply Trumpian — more malleable than traditional right, left, free market or populist.

What is clear is that he’s a Trump loyalist with strong ties to the conservative judicial movement.