Moves like these should be seen for what they are: power grabs from a president who appears indifferent to institutional limits and the rule of law.
Among the many problems with Trump firing the FTC's Democratic members:
This was a legally dubious power-grab launched by a White House that's indifferent to both the rule of law and the existence of independent federal agencies.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-ignores-supreme-court-precedent-fires-democrats-helped-lead-inde-rcna197101
Almost immediately after returning to power, Donald Trump and his administration got to work firing thousands of federal employees as part of a larger effort to dismantle much of the federal government. Many of these layoffs were legally dubious, which is one of the key reasons judges keep telling the White House to bring back officials who were ousted unjustly.
The Republican president, however, appears undeterred. Reuters reported:
President Donald Trump fired two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, in another major test of the independence of regulatory agencies. A White House official confirmed the firings of Democratic Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter after they were first reported by Reuters, but had no additional comment.
Part of what makes developments like these important is the real-world impact the move will have. “
By illegally firing two senate-confirmed Democratic commissioners, Trump has given a green light to businesses across the country to gouge consumers and skyrocket prices for American families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. The New York Democrat added,
“Make no mistake about it: this decision will directly lead to higher prices for Americans.”......
The Times added that Trump and his team planned to “centralize more power in the Oval Office ... increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.”
The 2023 article specifically referenced the Federal Trade Commission as an independent agency that Trump and the Project 2025 authors wanted to bring “under direct presidential control.”
Nearly two years later, we now know how serious Team Trump was, and is, about this goal. Indeed, we’ve effectively reached the point at which the White House, for all intents and purposes, hardly recognizes any governmental entity as independent.
Even if one were inclined to shrug their shoulders about the fate of a couple of FTC commissioners,
moves like these should be seen for what they are: power grabs from a president who appears increasingly indifferent to institutional limits and the rule of law.
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