Trump’s new FCC nominee promises to bring Project 2025-style governance to media

In September, I went through all the proposals from Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation’s policy blueprint for a second Trump term — that would have a direct impact on the media. At the time, of course, candidate Donald Trump took pains to say that he wasn’t behind Project 2025, that he barely knew anyone involved with Project 2025, that he’d never even been in the same room as the words “Project” or “2025.”

Of the Project 2025 proposals I highlighted, the largest share were authored by Brendan Carr, who sits on the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is the chief regulator of broadcast media in America and plays a big part in Internet policy though issues like net neutrality and broadband access. Carr is best known for his Trumpian rhetoric. Among the things he calls for in Project 2025:

— banning TikTok¹
— removing restrictions on media ownership
— eliminating Section 230 protections for publishers

(More details at those links.)

Since Election Day, Carr has been making himself very visible backing Trump’s wishes — falsely accusing NBC of violating equal time rules, saying the FCC should stop doing anything “partisan” until Trump’s inauguration, arguing the “censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed” (you know, fact-checkers — he really doesn’t like NewsGuard), and backing Trump’s regular statements that TV networks should lose their broadcast licenses for doing things he doesn’t like. He’s also very tight with Elon Musk, last seen accompanying McNuggets at Trump’s right hand.

Last night, Donald Trump — now president-elect — announced that Brendan Carr would be his nominee to lead the FCC.

1. Though Trump recently decided he likes TikTok after all, so you can expect Carr to follow suit. [↩]