The architect of the push to clip the wings of the largest companies is leaving the White House.
The White House said that the special assistant to the president for competition and tech policy would be leaving on Wednesday. He told The New York Times that he would return to teaching at Columbia Law School.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are part of a troika that is leading Washington's attempts to more aggressively check corporate giants. He was the author of an executive order in July of 2021. Ms. Khan and Mr. Kanter have argued in court against corporate consolidation.
His departure was due to personal reasons. He commuted from New York to Washington so he could spend more time with his children.
The burden on family is too much at certain times. The balance has changed for me.
He thought it was a chance to reverse decades of conservative thinking in antitrust law. The administration has gotten some victories on that front, such as the part of the executive order that opened up charging networks for electric vehicles and made hearing aids available for purchase over the counter.
He said that he was proudest of the fact that the presidential role in competition policy and economic structure had been re-established.
The goal of the legislation was to ban common practices used by tech giants.
He defended the White House's efforts to push for the antitrust measure, saying it was "disappointing" that tech-related legislation had not passed during his time in office. He said they supported it along the way and voiced their support for a bipartisan bill.
The aggressive action taken by the F.T.C. and the Justice Department over the past two years has pleased Mr. Wu. The agencies are led by appointees of the president.
The Justice Department was successful in blocking the purchase of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House. The F.T.C. is trying to block Meta, Facebook's parent company, and Microsoft from buying companies.
His antitrust policy work will be taken over by Hannah Garden-Monheit. The White House said that Elizabeth Kelly would inherit his portfolio of technology policy issues. The deputy director of the National Economic Council will be in charge of both areas.
The director of the National Economic Council said in a statement that in the past two years the government had revived a great American tradition of presidential leadership on competition policy. The administration would continue to institutionalize pro-competition reforms.
He pointed to the demands in the executive order.
All of the levers that we can pull are being worked on, he said.
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