President Donald Trump fired a pair of Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, the administration’s latest high-profile shake-up of top leadership at an independent government agency.
The White House confirmed a Reuters report on the firing of Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter but did not provide additional comment.
“I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately,” reads a letter sent to one of the commissioners and obtained by The New York Times. “Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my administration’s priorities.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Andrew Ferguson, the Republican chair of the agency, backed Trump’s terminations in a statement.
“President Donald J. Trump is the head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power in our government,” he wrote. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government.”
Bedoya, who was appointed FTC commissioner three years ago, blasted his “illegal” termination as “corruption plain and simple” in a statement posted on X.
“The president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies,” he said. “Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or someone who’s so disgusted with Washington you can barely watch the news, the FTC has worked for you. Who will Trump’s FTC work for? Will it work for the billionaires? Or will it work for you?”
Bedoya told The Times that he was worried about the independence of the FTC: “When people hear this news, they need to not think about me. They need to think about the billionaires behind the president at his inauguration.”
Slaughter, who was appointed to the FTC in 2018 during Trump’s first administration, also confirmed in a statement that she was “illegally” fired, “violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent.”
“The administration clearly fears the accountability that opposition voices would provide if the President orders Chairman Ferguson to treat the most powerful corporations and their executives—like those that flanked the President at his inauguration—with kid gloves," she said.
The FTC protects the public from unfair business practices and enforces antitrust laws. The agency is led by five commissioners nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Only a maximum of three commissioners can belong to the same political party.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the courts “must reinstate” the fired commissioners.
“Trump’s billionaire donors expect a return on their investment. He works for them, not you,” she said.
The terminations will likely lead to legal battles, similar to cases playing out in other independent federal agencies.
Earlier on Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held proceedings on the firings of two members of the watchdog agencies Merit Systems Protection Board and National Labor Relations Board.
Trump fired MSPB member Cathy Harris in February and NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox in January, but they were reinstated after two federal judges ruled that their terminations were illegal. The administration has appealed those orders.
Following the firings, the Justice Department has put forward some controversial arguments to justify its authority to terminate independent agency heads.
DOJ attorney Eric McArthur argued in court that it would hypothetically be well within Trump’s powers to fire all agency heads who are female, or over the age of 40.
“They are agency heads who answer to no one but the president,” he said.
Last month, Reuters reported that the Justice Department no longer planned to defend the independent status of the FTC, NLRB, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
