As Trump’s horrific Administration of non-stop debacles and self-serving gambits headed toward the exit over the past few weeks, one last regulatory grab after another has been pushed out the door while the toddler-in-chief rants. Sure enough, the last of the 5G debacles just appeared in the Federal Register courtesy of the President’s policy instrument, the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA). It was titled the 5G Challenge Notice of Inquiry.

The NOI proposes that U.S. 5G private sector resources be re-vectored from participating in long-existing global 5G standards bodies to help advance self-serving schemes cooked up by some of Trump’s supporters now resident in the DOD before they depart. The “challenge” would have DOD in effect replace 3GPP and other open global standards organizations as the U.S. body for developing 5G standards. The Biden Administration should shut down this proceeding immediately.

At the outset of Trump assuming power, he and his minions sought to destroy anything and everything global and build walls around the nation. This included 5G telecommunication and information systems and the global marketplace. Highly successful and fully open global 5G industry bodies were painted as closed and biased against American interests. Impediments were placed in the way of U.S. private sector participation, xenophobic equipment bans were instituted, and Friends of Trump marshalled for what has been described as raiding the Federal funding and spectrum piggy banks. It is the successor to the cockamamie scheme to federalize the national 5G services proposed earlier.

Historically, the playbook of the Harding Administration a century ago was resurrected. A gopher for one of Trump’s only Tech supporters was brought into the White House and appallingly named as the “U.S. CTO” to write Trump’s pronouncements and then moved over to DOD in a senior position to pry open the piggy banks. Never mind their pronouncements made plain an utter lack of understanding of 5G.

The reality is that substantial U.S. private sector 5G resources exist and being demonstrably deployed today for nominally effective participation in existing fully open global 5G specifications bodies. The new Biden Administration has an opportunity to significantly enhance that participation to the benefit of America and the world. Trump’s minions cooking up a scheme to re-vector those resources to line their own pockets as they turn in their badges is nothing less than reprehensible. The NTIA 5G Challenge NOI should be terminated immediately.