Although a lot of the Trump administration is engaged in a full-court press to make Los Angeles burn, not all companies are enjoying a job within the wretched and unlawful endeavor.
Take the Federal Commerce Fee. Even in President Donald Trump’s most fevered creativeness, the company charged with defending companies from antitrust practices and defending shoppers from misleading promoting isn’t going to assist Immigration and Enforcement Officers crack skulls and terrorize cities.
However by no means concern: The FTC is conserving busy by defending Elon Musk’s enterprise pursuits and attacking trans folks.
Regardless of Musk’s swift and hilarious fall from grace, the FTC appears to nonetheless be doing him a stable. It’s possible not as a result of FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has a smooth spot for Musk, however relatively as a result of he doesn’t imagine in a good, stage enjoying area for companies. That sort of considering is for suckers like former Chair Lina Khan, who really tried to implement antitrust legal guidelines.
Beneath Khan, the FTC additionally banned most non-compete agreements as a result of stopping folks from switching jobs harms enterprise competitors. In the meantime, Ferguson issued a press release condemning the ban and lovingly detailing the lengthy historical past of companies forcing workers to remain in poisonous work environments.
As a part of the topsy-turvy Trump administration, the FTC goes to guard enterprise competitors by harassing promoting companies and commerce teams for failing to power their purchasers to promote on X—aka Musk’s Every thing App for Nazis and Eugenics Fanatics.
That’s the actual reverse of defending enterprise competitors. It appears to be like much more like a particular carveout for a man who spent $250 million to place Trump in workplace. Final month, the FTC introduced it had opened an investigation into Media Issues, which seems to endorse the identical theories as Musk’s lawsuit towards the corporate.
These theories? First, that by some means Media Issues gamed the system to power racist and anti-semitic posts subsequent to paid commercials on X. Second, that if commerce organizations and advocacy teams mentioned not having their purchasers promote on X, that’s an unlawful boycott.
This absurdity wouldn’t be entertained for one minute by a functioning company, however we actually don’t have a type of.
However that’s simply how Trump’s FTC is defending enterprise competitors, so how is it defending shoppers? By attacking trans folks, in fact.
In July, the FTC is internet hosting a workshop referred to as Exploring Unfair or Misleading Commerce Practices in “Gender-Affirming Care” for Minors, which can tackle whether or not medical professionals are engaged in unfair or misleading commerce practices by failing to warn folks in regards to the dangers of gender-affirming care or by making unsupported claims about the advantages of that take care of minors.
In the actual world, the stance of all main medical organizations is that gender-affirming take care of minors is good and protected. However since Trump issued an government order reversing the federal government’s help, the FTC has determined that it will possibly bootstrap that order backward by some means, alleging that previous statements of help for gender-affirming take care of minors have been due to this fact misleading.
It’s not simply legally incoherent. It’s additionally proof of how the Trump administration has warped itself to do nothing besides deal with Trump’s each random proclamation as settled legislation.
The workshop guarantees a parade of unnamed “doctors, medical ethicists, whistleblowers, detransitioners, and parents of detransitioners.” However good luck listening to from these unimaginable but nameless specialists, as a result of “for the safety of participants,” in-person attendance is invitation solely.
Nothing says “we feel rock solid about our stance here” like ensuring nobody with precise details about gender-affirming take care of minors will get within the door.
Beneath the Biden administration, the FTC labored to really defend shoppers relatively than combat right-wing tradition wars.
In 2024, the FTC issued a “click to cancel” regulation, requiring firms to make it as straightforward to cancel subscriptions as it’s to enroll. In different phrases, if you happen to can join Netflix or Amazon or no matter digitally, you have got to have the ability to cancel it digitally, too.
Now, the FTC has delayed implementation of that rule as a result of “protecting consumers” means “letting companies make it hard to stop giving them money.”
It’s horrible to observe the FTC abandon its core missions in favor of no matter that is. However we don’t should fake it’s acceptable.
