July 15 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump's

vice presidential pick J.D. Vance has openly praised the work of

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, a sign that the

agency's broad approach to antitrust enforcement could enjoy

some level of support from a second Trump administration.

Vance, a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, joined the

presidential ticket on Monday at the Republican National

Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump officially became the

party's nominee.

Vance is one of several Republican lawmakers, including U.S.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Florida U.S. Representative

Matt Gaetz, called "Khanservatives" for their agreement with the

FTC chair that U.S. antitrust law has a broader purpose than

keeping prices down for consumers.

"She recognized there has to be a broader understanding of

how we think about competition in the marketplace," Vance said

at an event in Washington in February.

The comments reflect a tension in the conservative movement,

between an impulse to shrink regulatory agencies and a

willingness to use antitrust laws to challenge powerful

corporations - especially in Big Tech, where some hope to tackle

perceived censorship of conservatives online.

Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust policy at the

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said Vance is

among the latter.

"I do think that picking Senator Vance as vice president

certainly sends a signal in one direction," said Coniglio. His

think tank receives funding from several major technology

companies.

Scrutiny of Big Tech would not be a departure for Trump. The

FTC and Department of Justice under Trump initiated

investigations into Meta, Amazon ( AMZN ), Apple ( AAPL )

and Google over alleged antitrust violations.

All four companies were eventually sued, and have denied

wrongdoing.

Vance is a Yale-educated lawyer and venture capitalist who

worked at corporate law firm Sidley Austin and has helped Trump

fundraise in Silicon Valley. He has also called for the breakup

of one of its biggest companies.

"Long overdue, but it's time to break Google up," Vance

tweeted in February, lamenting that "monopolistic control of

information in our society resides with an explicitly

progressive technology company."

It remains to be seen what a potential second Trump

administration would focus on. The conservative Heritage

Foundation's Project 2025 policy platform discusses ways

conservative causes can be championed by antitrust enforcers,

but also questions whether the FTC should continue to exist.

Business groups have criticized President Joe Biden's

antitrust enforcers for going beyond traditional considerations

of how competition affects prices to focus on issues including

labor.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sued to block the FTC's

recent ban on employers requiring workers to sign agreements not

to join rivals or launch competing businesses.

Vance said at the February event, hosted by Silicon Valley

startup incubator Y Combinator, that his view of antitrust

encompasses not only helping small firms compete, but also on

workers and the quality of consumer goods.

He disagreed with what he described as some conservatives'

view that corporations' behavior cannot be "tyrannical."

"I want people to live good lives in our country," he said.

"I don't really care if the entity that is most threatening to

that vision is a private entity or a public entity."