Lina Khan Joins Hands with Zohran Mamdani — The FTC Should Rid its Hands of Her

On November 4, the voters of New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described “democratic socialist.”

His campaign consisted of numerous tax increase proposals, some of them racially motivated. They include a tax of 2 percent on all incomes over $1 million, lobbying the state government to raise the corporate tax rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent, and raising property taxes on “richer and whiter neighborhoods” to increase tax revenue.

After his victory, his transition team was led by a familiar face—Lina Khan.

Lina Khan, President Biden’s FTC Chair, led the charge on abandoning the consumer harm standard and oversaw the biggest abuse of power in the history of the commission. Her tenure has been marked by prioritizing progressive agendas over the rule of law and putting political preferences ahead of the free market.

Her office opened antitrust cases against Amazon, Google, and Meta as part of a broader crusade against “Big Tech” and American innovators. She blocked mergers between airlines and grocery chains which would have reduced costs for Americans, all for the pursuit of an “anti-monopolist” agenda. With allies like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the Senate and the avowed Marxist Mamdani in New York City, Lina Khan represents unconstrained progressivism that strikes at the core of the American economy and American values.

Curiously, some self-proclaimed “Khanservatives” have cozied up to Ms. Khan’s radical ideology in the past. The likes of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), best known for flip-flopping on right-to-work in exchange for a paltry $5,000 donation from the teamsters’ union, and former Congressman-cum-accused sex trafficker Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) expressed their affinity for her crusade against success. Worse still, the Trump FTC under Chairman Andrew Ferguson has refused to drop lawsuits against America’s biggest companies initiated by Khan. Punishing the companies with the capital and talent to expand America’s AI lead is the opposite of what we should be doing to encourage innovation and prosperity.

Mr. Mamdani’s transition team, announced after his victory, includes Lina Khan as co-chair. If ever the American people needed a reminder of the alliance between Khan and anti-market, anti-freedom left-wing extremism, look no further. The mayor-elect declared in his victory speech that “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

The Federal Trade Commission under President Trump does not need to honor or continue any of the cases brought by Lina Khan. In addition to the long list of reasons for why her FTC doctrine will harm Americans– including denying them access to emerging technology, limiting consumer choice, and preventing innovators from acting independently – continuing her cases will only give fodder to progressive priorities in the future.

The Trump administration must see these cases for what they are and terminate them immediately. Otherwise, they are siding with Marxists Khan and Mamdani against America’s future.