CBS News
Trump’s FCC pick, Brendan Carr, wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the agency. Here’s what he wants.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, will oversee the agency that regulates U.S. internet access and communications networks such as TV and radio. Carr believes it’s an institution ripe for change, according to the nominee’s Project 2025 chapter on the agency FCC.
Carr will be stepping into the role of FCC Chair after serving as one of its five commissioners since 2017, when Trump nominated him to the role during his first administration. Prior to that, Carr served as the agency’s general counsel.
The FCC may not be a household name to most Americans, but the agency enforces communications laws, runs programs to help communities gain access to high-speed internet and regulates communications services, including satellite internet access, among other tasks. But under Carr, the agency may pivot to some new priorities during Trump’s next term, with a renewed focus on battling big technology companies and Chinese-based telecom firms.
“The FCC needs to change course and bring new urgency to achieving four main goals,” including “reining in Big Tech,” Carr wrote in his chapter on the FCC in Project 2025.
Here’s what to know about Carr’s priorities.
How might the FCC deal with tech giants?
In Project 2025, Carr highlighted what he believes is a need for a new approach to dealing with tech giants such as Google, Meta and others.
“Today, a handful of corporations can shape everything from the information we consume to the places we shop,” Carr wrote in the document. “These corporate behemoths are not merely exercising market power, they are abusing dominant positions.”
The FCC should restrict immunity from Section 230, part of a law that says tech companies aren’t liable if a user posts something libelous, as well as tamp down the businesses’ ability to “censor protected speech while maintaining their Section 230 protections,” he wrote.
Carr also wants tech companies to be more transparent about their algorithm changes and their decisions to block or demonetize users.
What are Carr’s views on Elon Musk?
Carr has built an alliance with billionaire Musk, the world’s wealthiest person who backed Trump’s campaign and whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Carr pointed to Musk as an example of how the federal government doesn’t treat people fairly, noting that a grant of almost $900 million to Musk’s Starlink was “revoked unlawfully.” Last year, the FCC said it rejected the grant because of lack of proof that Starlink would be able to provide service to hundreds of thousands of rural properties.
“It is time for the American government to not give people different treatment based on their last name,” Carr told Fox News. “Everybody will get a fair shake from the government going forward.”
What about his views on TikTok and Chinese businesses?
In his Project 2025 chapter, Carr singled out TikTok and other Chinese-owned businesses as potential threats to U.S. security.
“As law enforcement officials have made clear, TikTok poses a serious and unacceptable risk to America’s national security,” Carr wrote. “It also provides Beijing with an opportunity to run a foreign influence campaign by determining the news and information that the app feeds to millions of Americans.”
That would align his views along those with the Biden administration, with the president signing a law in April that would require TikTok to be sold or else banned from the U.S.
Carr also wrote that he believes the FCC needs to do more to monitor and restrict Chinese telecom and tech businesses from operating within the U.S.
What does Carr say about broadcasters?
Carr has taken aim at some broadcasters, including CBS News, echoing Trump’s claims that they engage in political bias. For instance, Carr singled out NBC for including Trump’s Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in a “Saturday Night Live” skit before the election.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Carr wrote on X on November 2. “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election.”
After Trump announced Carr’s pick, Carr said on X that he will ensure the FCC “will enforce” laws that call on broadcasters “to operate in the public interest.”
Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses. During the 2024 campaign, Trump sued CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris, alleging the network used “deceitful” editing of her responses. CBS News has called the president-elect’s claims “completely without merit” and added it intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
What do supporters and critics say about Carr?
Trump praised Carr as “a warrior for Free Speech” in a statement announcing his selection. Fellow FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, a Democrat, described Carr as “a dedicated public servant and a recognized leader on the many issues before the Commission today.”
But some critics have flagged some of Carr’s stances, with the nonpartisan public interest group Free Press describing his relationship with Musk as well as his stance on broadcasters as problematic.
“While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact check him during the campaign,” Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. “This alone should be disqualifying.”
Free Press and Fight for the Future, an advocacy group focused on digital rights, both have cited concerns about net neutrality, a policy that ensures internet service providers treat all websites and online content equally. Net neutrality was overturned during the first Trump administration, but was restored during Biden’s term.
“Trump’s nomination of Brendan Carr, one of the co-authors of Project 2025, to head the FCC is more than just a reversal of popular policies like net neutrality,” said Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, said in an email. “Carr has made clear he actually wants the FCC to get more involved in policing online speech.”
ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – At least two people were injured after a possible gas explosion and ensuing fire destroyed a condominium building Tuesday evening in Orion Township, Michigan, officials said. Another two people remain unaccounted for.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the explosion was reported at about 6:30 p.m. local time in the Keatington New Town Association condominium complex on Waldon Road, between Joslyn and Baldwin roads.
Orion Township Fire Chief Ryan Allen says the explosion destroyed a four-unit building, causing significant damage to one building and minimal damage to a few others. Allen says crews worked with utility providers DTE and Consumers Energy to control a gas leak.
Photo submitted by Orion Township resident
Allen says the two people hospitalized, a 72-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman, suffered critical injuries. Their current condition is unknown. An unknown number of others suffered minor injuries, he added.
Allen said crews were working to make contact with two people who are unaccounted for.
The sheriff’s office said no fatalities have so far been reported.
“Preliminary indications are it was a gas explosion but the exact cause has not been determined,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Orion Township is located just north of Detroit.
One resident who lives nearby told CBS News Detroit he was home with family when the explosion happened.
“We just heard this big boom [It] shuck my entire house. I look out the window, I see flares, I see fire just popping through the sky,” the resident said. “It felt like it was going to take a wall down. It felt like it happened at my house. I was terrified. It was so strong.”
Consumers Energy said in a statement that because firefighters were still battling the blaze, it did “not have additional information about the cause of the explosion or about the status of anyone in the building.”
The company said its crews will get on site once they are given the greenlight that it is safe to do so.
CBS News
Comedian Katt Williams often brags about passing Marine boot camp. The Marines say they have no record of it.
Los Angeles — Katt Williams, the Emmy-winning actor and renowned stand-up comedian, for years has claimed to have joined the U.S. Marine Corps as a teenager and successfully navigated the rigorous training only to be drummed out of the military when his superiors discovered he was a minor. The Marines told CBS News they have no record of him.
Dating back to at least 2016, Williams has claimed association with the U.S. Marine Corps when talking about his personal biography in video blogs, in his stand-up routines and in interviews viewed and heard by tens of millions of people. His claims of military service seem to not be attached to any of his critically acclaimed jokes or characters he has created for stage and screen but instead, a part of his journey towards comedy.
The U.S. Marine Corps tells CBS News there’s no record of Williams ever entering military service or attending any Marine Corps recruit training camps.
Multiple emails and phone calls were sent to Williams’ publicist, Amy Sisoyev, and his representatives at Creative Artists Agency, but no reply was returned for almost two weeks.
Earlier this year, Williams sat down for a nearly 3-hour interview with ESPN’s “First Take” correspondent Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, “Club Shay Shay.” The interview has racked up more than 83 million views on YouTube as of publication and is the most watched interview in YouTube’s history.
Sharpe, a former Denver Bronco and ex-NFL analyst for CBS Sports, asked Williams about being raised in Florida.
“I try to join the Marine Corps and they won’t accept me because I’m too young, and I’ve lied and told them I’m 16 and my family is moving down and I don’t have my ID but it’s coming. And so they [the Marines] let me go to the boot camp,” said Williams.
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Similarly, on comedian Marc Maron’s podcast last year, Williams said, “And then I attempt to join the Marine Corps, and I go off to boot camp and I pass, and then they reveal that I’m too young, and they give me a little ceremony because I did pass, you know, oo-Rah.”
He added: “I wasn’t even 16. I wasn’t even 16. I was already — I had miscalculated it wrong. I thought that you know, by the time I got back I would be good, but I hadn’t turned 16 by the time boot camp was over.”
Maron, whose “WTF” podcast garners more than 55 million listens per year, asked Williams if he got through boot camp and about his ceremony.
Williams reaffirmed that he passed boot camp, saying, “When you come back everybody gets the ceremony and I was supposed to have been, probably put in the brig or court-martialed or something, but they didn’t treat me like that. … As far as the Marine Corps thing, whatever those commercials were selling, you remember those commercials back in that time … if you wanted to join a gang, the Marines was the gang to join.”
On Saturday, CBS News attended the Vulture Festival in Los Angeles where Williams was interviewed about his life and career by Jesse David Fox, a Vulture writer and host of “Good One: The Podcast About Jokes.” Williams is set to launch his multistate “Heaven on Earth” tour next year.
While Williams did not discuss his alleged short stint in the Marines, the comedian said “Thank God I tell the truth” when asked by Fox about his past statements in interviews.
CBS News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records pertaining to Williams’ alleged enlistment in the Marine Corps.
Marine Corps officials searched for records pertaining to Williams using his full name — Micah Sierra Williams — and other identifying information such as his date of birth and social security number. Officials told CBS News that their database of official military personnel files dates back to the 1960s, housed at the National Personnel Records Center of the National Archives.
“We searched the files maintained by the Manpower Management Performance Branch but were unable to identify Mr. Williams as a member or former member of the U.S. Marine Corps,” wrote an official in response to CBS News’ public records request.
Marine Corps officials told CBS News that if Williams’ story was accurate, there would be records showing his entry into military service, his graduation and discharge, even if he fraudulently enlisted as a minor.
Army veteran Anthony Anderson, who runs “Guardians of Valor,” a popular social media website that investigates service member records, told CBS News that Williams’ claims are a “slap in the face of people who have earned the title of Marine.”
“Boot camp for the Marine Corps is not an easy task. To call yourself a Marine, you have to go through at least 13 weeks of boot camp and successfully navigate the crucible … people have died in training at boot camp trying to earn the title of Marine,” said Anderson.
While it’s unclear when exactly Williams began to claim he graduated from Marine boot camp, the earliest examples CBS News could find stemmed from Williams’ 2016 feud with actor and comedian Kevin Hart.
In a video that appears to have been recorded by Williams, addressing drug abuse allegations, the comedian says, “Ever since I got out of the Marine Corps, I can only breathe out of one nostril.”
That same year, Williams was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and battery charges after a fight at an apartment complex in Gainesville, Georgia, with a 17-year-old high school wrestler who was also charged, according to previous news reports. Williams pleaded not guilty and the case lingered on until earlier this year when local prosecutors decided to drop the case against Williams.
Soon after his arrest Williams spoke about the episode on stage, suggesting that he wasn’t actually put into a chokehold by the teenager and in fact, that Williams had let him win, adding, “I’m Semper Fi till I die, Marine Corps b—-. I passed motherf—ing boot camp at 16.”
Williams’ routine was removed from YouTube due to copyright infringement issues, but the video still exists in the reader forum on Military.com, a military news and culture website. A user posted the video to the website in 2016 and asked: “Katt Williams a Marine?”
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At least 2 injured in explosion at condominium building in Oakland County, Michigan
Comedian Katt Williams often brags about passing Marine boot camp. The Marines say they have no record of it.
Eden Prairie man sentenced for COVID relief fraud
At least 2 injured in explosion at condominium building in Oakland County, Michigan
Comedian Katt Williams often brags about passing Marine boot camp. The Marines say they have no record of it.