(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Trump's FTC is too busy harassing consumers to protect them [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-06-11
Though most of the Trump administration is engaged in a full-court press to make Los Angeles burn, not all agencies are playing a role in the wretched and illegal endeavor.
Take the Federal Trade Commission. Even in President Donald Trump’s most fevered imagination, the agency charged with protecting businesses from antitrust practices and protecting consumers from deceptive advertising isn’t going to help Immigration and Enforcement Officials crack skulls and terrorize cities.
But never fear: The FTC is keeping busy by protecting Elon Musk’s business interests and attacking trans people.
Despite Musk’s swift and hilarious fall from grace, the FTC seems to still be doing him a solid. It’s likely not because FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has a soft spot for Musk, but rather because he doesn’t believe in a fair, level playing field for businesses. That kind of thinking is for suckers like former Chair Lina Khan, who actually tried to enforce antitrust laws.
The Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, D.C.
Under Khan, the FTC also banned most non-compete agreements because preventing people from switching jobs harms business competition. Meanwhile, Ferguson issued a statement condemning the ban and lovingly detailing the long history of businesses forcing employees to stay in toxic work environments.
As part of the topsy-turvy Trump administration, the FTC is going to protect business competition by harassing advertising agencies and trade groups for failing to force their clients to advertise on X—aka Musk’s Everything App for Nazis and Eugenics Enthusiasts.
That is the exact opposite of protecting business competition. It looks a lot more like a special carveout for a guy who spent $250 million to put Trump in office. Last month, the FTC announced it had opened an investigation into Media Matters, which appears to endorse the same theories as Musk’s lawsuit against the company.
Those theories? First, that somehow Media Matters gamed the system to force racist and anti-semitic posts next to paid advertisements on X. Second, that if trade organizations and advocacy groups discussed not having their clients advertise on X, that’s an illegal boycott.
This absurdity wouldn’t be entertained for one minute by a functioning agency, but we certainly don’t have one of those.
But that’s just how Trump’s FTC is protecting business competition, so how is it protecting consumers? By attacking trans people, of course.
In July, the FTC is hosting a workshop called Exploring Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices in “Gender-Affirming Care” for Minors, which will address whether medical professionals are engaged in unfair or deceptive trade practices by failing to warn people about the risks of gender-affirming care or by making unsupported claims about the benefits of that care for minors.
In the real world, the stance of all major medical organizations is that gender-affirming care for minors is good and safe. But since Trump issued an executive order reversing the government’s support, the FTC has decided that it can bootstrap that order backward somehow, alleging that past statements of support for gender-affirming care for minors were therefore deceptive.
A group protests a Kentucky bill against gender-affirming care.
It’s not just legally incoherent. It’s also evidence of how the Trump administration has warped itself to do nothing except treat Trump’s every random proclamation as settled law.
The workshop promises a parade of unnamed “doctors, medical ethicists, whistleblowers, detransitioners, and parents of detransitioners.” But good luck hearing from those incredible yet anonymous experts, because “for the safety of participants,” in-person attendance is invitation only.
Nothing says “we feel rock solid about our stance here” like making sure no one with actual information about gender-affirming care for minors gets in the door.
Under the Biden administration, the FTC worked to actually protect consumers rather than fight right-wing culture wars.
In 2024, the FTC issued a “click to cancel” regulation, requiring companies to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions as it is to sign up. In other words, if you can sign up for Netflix or Amazon or whatever digitally, you have to be able to cancel it digitally, too.
Now, the FTC has delayed implementation of that rule because “protecting consumers” means “letting companies make it hard to stop giving them money.”
It’s terrible to watch the FTC abandon its core missions in favor of whatever this is. But we don’t have to pretend it’s acceptable.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/11/2327045/-Trump-s-FTC-is-too-busy-harassing-consumers-to-protect-them?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
