Trump picks Silicon Valley insider as Vice Presidential running mate

Former US President Donald Trump announced the tech sector-friendly J.D. Vance, a US senator from Ohio, as his pick for Vice Presidential nominee Monday. Will Big Tech be on the chopping block for this potential duo?

In his first appearance since this past weekend’s assassination attempt, Trump, as expected, announced his VP pick to cheering crowds at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the former US leader also accepted his own party nomination.

Trump also posted the news on his Truth Social platform, which he created after getting banned from X (while it was still Twitter) following the attack on the US Capitol during then President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration day, January 6th, 2021.

Vance: Google has 'monopolistic' control over information

The 39-year-old Vance has recently helped Trump fundraise in the tech-heavy Silicon Valley, California, and most industry insiders say they expect Vance to back Trump in his fight against Big Tech monopolies.

A US Senator still in his first term, Vance graduated from Yale Law School and formally worked for one of the largest corporate law firms in the world: the Chicago-based Sidley Austin.

Rising to be a venture capitalist in his own right, Vance has not only helped Trump raise money in the tech sector but has specifically called for the breakup of Google, citing its hold on the industry.

According to Reuters, Vance has openly praised the work of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, signaling that if elected, the presidential duo would likely support the FTC’s broad approach to antitrust enforcement.

Known as one of the "Khanservatives" Republican lawmakers, Vance praised Khan at a February event in Washington for recognizing that “there has to be a broader understanding of how we think about competition in the marketplace."

"Long overdue, but it's time to break Google up," Vance had posted on X this past February, stating that "the monopolistic control of information in our society resides with an explicitly progressive technology company."

"This matters far more than any other election integrity issue," Vance said in his post.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) on Friday called to break up Google, calling it a “progressive technology company” with “monopolistic control of information.”

Vance wrote, “Long overdue, but it’s time to break Google up. This matters far more than any other election integrity issue. The… pic.twitter.com/VBQ6urcznd

undefined 🇺🇸🇺🇸Red White and True News🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@RWTNews) February 25, 2024

Stumping for the Trump

Vance is also said to be closely connected to fellow VC and tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who is said to have loaned Mark Zuckerberg his first $500,000 for Facebook. According to Bloomberg's billionaire index of the 500 richest people, Theil also co-founded PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and venture capitalist firm Founders Fund.

More importantly, Thiel happened to be one of the only tech industry supporters of Trump in 2016, handing over a $1.25 million donation to his campaign at the time.

In early June, Trump attended a much-talked-about fundraising event organized by two tech venture capitalists in San Francisco, raising $12 million for his 2024 presidential campaign.

Vance was said to be a major player in drumming up Trump supporters to pay for the $50,000 to $500,000 per person tickets.

At the event, Trump declared himself as “the crypto president,” slamming Biden and his Democratic Party for attempting to regulate the sector, although he did not offer up any future cryptocurrency policies to attendees.

Calling tech support

The now-official Republican presidential nominee has garnered recent support among tech heavyweights, including Elon Musk, and crypto investors looking to ease up on crypto regulations.

When it comes to Musk, rumors have circulated that Trump is considering the tech mogul for a policy advisory role in the Oval Office. The two would certainly have something to talk about as Musk revealed he has also been the target of two attempts on his life in the past eight months.

Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to reverse course on crypto regulations put in place by the SEC Chair Gary Gensler under the Biden administration, which has launched a crackdown on the industry after a string of financial frauds perpetrated by crypto CEOs wiped out investors.

Soon after the demise of crypto firms FTX and Binance, as well as Elon Musk’s Dogecoin meme rally, the SEC began a crackdown on unsavory practices, ruling that digital currencies should be registered and regulated with the Commission the same as any other banking and financial securities.

In January, Vance joined several other US Senators criticizing the SEC for their role in announcing the Approval Of Spot-Bitcoin ETFs causing a major stock market stir.

"It is unacceptable that the agency entrusted with regulating the epicenter of the world’s capital markets would make such a colossal error,” Vance posted at the time, unaware that the SEC announcement later turned out to be the result of a hack of the SEC’s X account.

🚨BREAKING: Senators @JDVance1 & @SenThomTillis Demand Explanation For The SEC's Errant Announcement Of The Approval Of Spot-Bitcoin ETFs

undefinedIt is unacceptable that the agency entrusted with regulating the epicenter of the world’s capital markets would make such a colossal error.undefined pic.twitter.com/xG77jM9xAM

undefined Senator Vance Press Office (@SenVancePress) January 10, 2024

Looking to apply anti-trust laws to Big Tech is often seen at odds with anti-regulatory values often championed by Republicans, although many conservative lawmakers have complained about censorship of the conservative voice on big social media platforms.

During his time in office, Trump has also called out Big Tech and initiated anti-trust investigations spearheaded by the FTC and the US Justice Department against the Big Four: Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Google over alleged violations.

"I do think that picking Senator Vance as Vice President certainly sends a signal in one direction," said Joe Coniglio, Director of antitrust policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a non-profit public policy think tank in Washington that receives much of its funding from several major tech firms.

At another event hosted by Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator in February, Vance expressed his view that antitrust encompasses not only helping small firms compete, but also workers and the quality of consumer goods, reported Reuters.