December 2016

Trump FCC Adviser Says Net Neutrality Is a Target for Next Administration

The Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rule is “the worst kind of crony capitalism” and is likely to be weakened or dismantled in the next administration, according to Jeffrey Eisenach, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top telecommunications advisers. Eisenach also said that one of the two Republicans currently on the commission “will be designated chairman, because that’s the way the world works.”

President-elect Trump will have the opportunity to name a Republican chairman of the FCC in 2017, and Eisenach, who’s head of Trump’s transition team for the agency, is expected to play a key role in determining who the White House places on the commission. Eisenach noted that the net neutrality rule is tangled up in federal court and seems likely to end up on the Supreme Court’s docket. Eisenach also suggested that a new Republican-led FCC would curb its own power, saying 1980s-style deregulation “absolutely” can happen.

How Donald Trump's potential press secretary views the press: "Worse than irrelevant"

On Dec 6, President-elect Donald Trump met with conservative commentator Laura Ingraham at Trump Tower. Ingraham — a talk radio host, Fox News contributor and the founder of conservative lifestyle site Lifezette — is believed to be the leading candidate to be Trump’s press secretary. Trump places a premium on loyalty, and Ingraham has supported the president-elect from the moment that he announced his candidacy a year and a half ago. A long-time supporter of hard-line immigration policies, she was a natural surrogate for the Trump campaign.

If Ingraham would be more interested in policy than previous White House press secretaries, she would also be less interested in the press. She believes that most mainstream news organizations are part of a bipartisan liberal establishment that is institutionally biased against Trump and right-wing populist movements. Throughout the campaign, she relentlessly criticized the “establishment media” and “Republican establishment” for its opposition to Trump.