US: Trump fires both Democratic commissioners at FTC

United States President, Donald Trump, on Tuesday dismissed two Democratic commissioners in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in a move that has raised fresh concerns about the independence of federal regulatory agencies.

A White House official confirmed the removal of Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, following initial reports by Reuters, but declined to offer further comment.

The action quickly drew strong reactions from Democratic lawmakers and antimonopoly advocates, who viewed the firings as an effort to silence internal resistance to corporate power within the agency.

“Illegally gutting the Commission will empower fraudsters and monopolists, and consumers will pay the price,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, in a statement.

The FTC, which enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws, is structured to maintain bipartisan representation, with no more than three of its five commissioners allowed from the same political party.

According to Reuters, Bedoya and Slaughter have vowed to challenge their dismissals in court. “This is corruption plain and simple,” Bedoya said in a statement on X.

Slaughter added in her own statement: “The President illegally fired me from my position as a Federal Trade Commissioner, violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent.”

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, a Republican appointed to the commission last year by then-President Joe Biden and later named chairman by Trump, defended the move. He said on Tuesday he has “no doubts” about Trump’s constitutional authority to remove commissioners, “which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government.”

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“The Federal Trade Commission will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices, and police anticompetitive behavior,” Ferguson said on X.

Mark Meador, Trump’s nominee for the third Republican seat on the commission, is still awaiting Senate confirmation. It remains uncertain whether the administration intends to nominate replacements for the ousted commissioners. The FTC retains the authority to bring or dismiss cases with just two commissioners.

Trump’s decision adds to a growing list of similar actions that have led to legal challenges, including the dismissal of members from other independent agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board.

A 1935 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld that FTC commissioners can only be removed for cause, such as failure to perform their duties, offering a legal safeguard against executive interference in independent, bipartisan agencies.

Already, two federal judges in Washington, D.C., have ruled that Trump’s removals of NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board Member Cathy Harris were in violation of federal law.

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