Vance allies set to flex antitrust muscle against Big Tech

• "We believe fundamentally that Big Tech does have too much power," Vance, a former Ohio senator who has called for breaking up Google, said in the first week of the new administration.
• Vance and his allies think dominant tech firms censor speech by conservatives, and control too much of Americans' daily lives.

Zoom in: Several of Vance's former aides are now in administration jobs that are key for setting antitrust policies that can break up large companies and block mergers.

• Gail Slater, Vance's economic policy adviser in the Senate, was confirmed to be assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
• James Braid now heads the White House's office of legislative affairs as antitrust bills start to get reintroduced in this Congress. Braid worked for Vance when the VP was in the Senate, and before that was chief of staff to then-Rep. Ken Buck, a leading antitrust proponent.
• Vance's deputy policy director, James Lloyd, led the Antitrust Division in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, where he sued technology companies including Google.
• Vance's chief of staff, Jacob Reses, previously was a senior policy adviser to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who's introduced a slew of Big Tech antitrust bills over the past five years.

While in the Senate, Vance joined with Democrats — including Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Dick Durbin (Illinois) on several antitrust bills.

Some Republicans privately have noted that the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, which handles civil antitrust enforcement, regularly calls the agency the "Trump-Vance FTC."

• Still, Democrats have argued that Trump's firing of the two Democratic commissioners of the FTC renders the resource-strapped agency weaker against tech in its various legal proceedings — and subject to direct influence from Trump if he wants a case shut down.

What they're saying: Vance's office declined to comment.

Zoom out: Vance has been part of a small but growing group of Republicans who believe free market policies — including those backed by past Republican administrations — let some companies become too powerful.

• Last year, before he joined Trump's ticket, Vance raised eyebrows by praising Joe Biden's FTC chair Lina Khan, who was among the most aggressive figures in antitrust.
• Not all of Trump's advisers agreed — including Elon Musk, who called on Khan to be fired during last year's campaign. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) antagonized Khan during her tenure at the FTC, and the Chamber of Commerce pushed anti-Khan sentiment among pro-business Republicans.

Between the lines: There is some early continuity between the Biden and Trump administrations on antitrust policy, but the motivations are different.

• Democrats focused much of their antitrust policy on consumer protections, increasing choice and improving online experiences.
• Republicans, going back to Trump's first term, are more focused on large companies they believe have restricted certain speech across their platforms.

The intrigue: Vance isn't entirely hostile to tech. Some of his earliest backers were major tech players, such as Peter Thiel.

• Many tech companies agree with Vance's opposition to what he sees as overly aggressive European policies toward tech on artificial intelligence and moderating content.
• The Trump administration has pivoted toward an aggressively pro-innovation and growth approach to AI, wanting to gain a technological edge over China with as little red tape as possible.
• Some Big Tech players see that approach as incompatible with also wanting to break up some of America's biggest and most successful companies, including Apple and Meta.

A tech antitrust conference in Washington recently brought together Big Tech critics across the political spectrum, from Khan to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who pointed to the antitrust sentiment in the new administration.

• "Look at our Justice Department. Look at some of the commissioners we're putting on there... These people are almost as big of fire breathers as me and Lina Khan," Bannon said at the event when asked whether Trump could be influenced by Oval Office visits and donations from tech billionaires such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.

Go deeper: A peek inside the left and right's shaky antitrust coalition