An alternative explanation is that Trump is making his best effort to bring back the spoils system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system

A fiscal conservative’s worst nightmare you mean - slashing programs to fund bigger military, rich people initiatives and boondoggles. none of the policies enacted r dudes the size or spend of government, it just redirects it to benefit the elite ruling class.

Pai was nominated by Obama, and confirmed unanimously by the Senate.

While true, this is not the full story. As I'm sure you know, the FCC is split between Republican and Democratic nominations by design, and Pai was nominated as the Republican option. It was Trump who appointed him as Chair, thus giving him the authority to carry out his (de)regulatory agenda.

Right, but Obama still picked him out of the universe of republicans. It’s not like the RNC told Obama who to nominate. Lumping him together with Betsy DeVoss is a misleading attempt to paint him as outside the mainstream. Yes, he’s pro-deregulation, but hardly to an unusual degree. The whole developed world is in a two-decade trend of liberalizing their telecom markets. The EU, for example, doesn’t have any media ownership rules similar to the FCC’s, not do member countries like Sweden. Many countries have nothing like our ponderous (about $8 billion per year) universal service fund. To pick random examples: Sweden got rid of its universal service fund in the 2000s, Germany in theory has one but it’s never been invoked, and Denmark never extended it to broadband (like Obama did here).

Ajit Pai was appointed to the commission (as a member) by President Obama, and confirmed in 2012.

President Trump placed Ajit Pai as Chairman in 2017.