Mass-Immigration-Loving, Pro-Data-Center Tech Bro Caught Lying About Debate With Antitrust Regulator

Interesting admin July 21, 2026 0 Comments

Mass-Immigration-Loving, Pro-Data-Center Tech Bro Caught Lying About Debate With Antitrust Regulator

Tech millionaire Jason Calacanis was forced to delete a post on X after being caught in a supposed lie about a potential on-the-record “debate” with a former federal antitrust official — claiming she “chickened out” when instead she was on maternity leave.

After being asked to partake in the discussion on mergers and acquisitions to be hosted and moderated by The New York Times, tech investor Jason Calacanis took to X to accuse Lina Khan, who the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under President Biden, of “chicken[ing] out” when she declined to participate in the event. The former FTC chairwoman declined the invitation in an email sent by her staff, explaining that she was on maternity leave — a detail Calacanis apparently missed.

In a now-deleted Wednesday X post, Calacanis declared, “A major media outlet offered me a debate with Lina Khan on M&A — she chickened out!”

Douglas Farrar, Khan’s communications director, responded to the allegation, posting on social media that he had sent the email to the New York Times turning down their invitation on Khan’s behalf. Farrar also contested Calacanis’s characterization of the event as a debate. “The show’s pitch was ‘opposite sides finding common ground,’” he wrote.

Farrar also provided copies of the emails that he, the Times, and Calacanis had exchanged, in which all parties were informed of Khan’s reason for declining the invitation.

“Why would anyone debate a liar?” Farrar asked in his post.

After a social media pile-on that included insults from technology and defense industry billionaire Palmer Luckey, Calacanis deleted his allegation and asserted that he had misread the email communications.

Luckey previously called Calacanis a “lying snake” when the two traded online blows in 2024 over Luckey’s support for Donald Trump.

During her tenure as FTC chairwoman, Khan pushed for the agency to be more aggressive on antitrust enforcement and was wary of corporate mergers and acquisitions, a stance that won her some admirers among populist Republicans like then-Sen. JD Vance.

Khan spearheaded landmark lawsuits, in tandem with the Department of Justice (DOJ), against big tech companies like Google and Amazon, alleging anti-competitive practices and unlawful monopolization in Silicon Valley, according to Harvard Business School. (RELATED: Google Is Upping Their Mind Control Efforts)

Khan also contributed to the abandonment of a $25 billion merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, according to a Close Up Washington, D.C. analysis piece. She argued the proposed merger would drive up costs for Americans, CBS News reported.

Calacanis is quite active in mergers and acquisitions and has personally profited from them.

His first major success came when he founded Weblogs and later sold it to AOL for $30 million just 18 months later, according to Business Insider.

Calacanis has argued that mergers and acquisitions will continue to consolidate technologies within the artificial intelligence industry, claiming on LinkedIn that “Consumer AI is heading toward ‘free and bundled’ as the default.”

Calacanis prides himself on investing in “100 new startups per year” and co-hosts of the venture capital-focused “All In” podcast, which White House AI czar David Sacks also co-hosts.

Calacanis is known for his longtime support for foreign-born and American-educated college graduates staying in the United States, big tech’s expansive use of foreign labor via H-1B visas, and, most recently, the construction of data centers. (RELATED: Obama Appointed Judge Overturns Trump’s $100K H-1B Visa Fee)

In 2024, Calacanis told President Trump on the “All In” podcast that “liberalizing immigration policy would be critical to winning the AI race,” according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Brookings Institution, and asked Trump to “promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America?”

President Trump then made a policy promise he has yet to fulfill.

“I do promise,” Trump said. “But I happen to agree, otherwise I wouldn’t promise… You graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country and that includes junior colleges too.” There is no such policy in place at this time.

Trump has not implemented any such policy. Instead, he has cracked down on the visas Calacanis wanted to expand, imposing a $100,000 fee (which a judge struck down last month) and stepping up anti-fraud efforts.

Calacanis has admitted that the bottom 20 to 30 percent of H-1Bs are “being abused,” but contends most of them are “used to recruit smart, skilled talent from around the world,” according to a 2015 CNBC report.

Calacanis also supports the construction of data centers, but has raised concerns about hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services and has instead invested in what he calls “Mom and pop data centers,” according to a post on LinkedIn.

These smaller-scale data centers are GPU networks that operate on a more decentralized basis.

Calancis is a close friend and confidant of billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Biden-Harris FTC Chair Lina Khan ‘Weaponized’ Agency Against Elon Musk, House Report Says)

In 2022, messages between the two businessmen revealed that post-COVID return-to-office mandates could serve as a “gentleman’s layoff” for employees at Twitter (now X) who might quit rather than comply, Fortune reported.