In a move widely seen as breaking from the norm, President Donald Trump on Tuesday moved to fire the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to reports from multiple outlets and statements from the impacted commissioners.
In response, one of the impacted commissioners claimed that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could be a future target of similar action.
The FTC operates with five commissioners. Three of them, including the chair, are part of the incumbent administration’s political party. No more than three commissioners can be part of the same political party, and commissioners are nominated for seven-year terms by the president before going through the Senate confirmation process.
The fired commissioners have been part of the FTC for the past several years. One of them, Rebecca Slaughter, was initially nominated by Trump in 2018 to serve out an unexpired term. She was renominated for a full seven-year term by former President Joe Biden in 2023. The other commissioner who was dismissed, Alvaro Bedoya, was nominated by Biden in 2022.
In statements to the media following the firings, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson (R) said that the president is well within his authority as head of the executive branch to fire the commissioners.
“President Donald J. Trump is the head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power of our government,” Ferguson told the The New York Times. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government.”
The move also follows an executive order issued by Trump that seeks greater control over what have largely been independent bodies. These include the FTC, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
But Slaughter suggested on Wednesday that the firing sets a precedent that could expose Fed Chair Powell to a potential firing by the president.
“It’s not just about the FTC, it’s about all of the structures of government that protect market stability,” Slaughter said on CNBC. “If I can be fired, I don’t know why Jerome Powell can’t be fired. He was actually appointed by President Trump around the same time as me in early 2018. And so, the markets that depend on the stability provided by government institutions should be very concerned.”
Powell and Trump have had an acrimonious relationship in the past. On the campaign trail last year, Trump suggested that he should have more influence over the Fed’s actions due to his business experience.
“We get along fine. But I feel the president should have at least a say in there, yeah,” Trump said in August. “I feel that strongly. I think that, in my case, I made a lot of money, I was very successful, and I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman.”
The Supreme Court established a precedent in 1935 by ruling that the incumbent president cannot fire an FTC commissioner based solely on policy disagreements. Both Slaughter and Bedoya have vowed to challenge their firings in court.
“We’ll take it as far as we have to,” Slaughter told CNBC anchors.
But the Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer defend the independent status of those at the FTC and NLRB, according to a report by Reuters in February. That position was reportedly reiterated in a letter sent on behalf of the president to the fired commissioners, The New York Times reported.
Bedoya suggested in an interview with the Times that the FTC could become a captive party to the president’s business allies without his and Slaughter’s voices of dissent.
“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,” he told the outlet.
Lina Khan, who served as FTC chair during the Biden administration and who was often a focal point of the private sector’s ire toward the group, blasted the firings in a statement on social media platform X.
“The FTC must enforce the law without fear or favor. The administration’s illegal attempt to fire Commissioners Slaughter & Bedoya is a disturbing sign that this FTC won’t,” Khan said. “It’s a gift to corporate lawbreakers that squeeze American consumers, workers, and honest businesses.”
