Many people disappear for a while when they leave top government jobs. They settle into the private sector or retreat into family life.
Not Lina Khan.
Ms. Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, recently campaigned for the New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, appearing at his victory party in June after he won the Democratic primary. She has become a frequent podcast guest, talking about the virtues of corporate regulation and vigorous law enforcement against monopolies. This month, she returned to teaching at Columbia Law School, where 180 students have signed up for her antitrust class.
Her new mission: Ensure the survival of her brand of economic populism, which blames the power and greed of corporations for many of the nation’s ills.
As chair of the F.T.C. under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Ms. Khan accused Amazon of breaking antimonopoly laws and sued to block mergers across the economy. Now, she is making the case that Democrats should continue that approach after a wipeout defeat in the last election.
“As part of some of this self-reflection, it seems like some people are like, ‘Well, if only we hadn’t gone after corporate lawbreakers because they were donors to our side,’” Ms. Khan, 36, said in a July interview. “It’s extraordinarily dangerous and disturbing to suggest that the right path for us is to shy away from bringing lawsuits when firms are violating the law, in ways that hurt people, because they’re friendly with certain parts of our party.”
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