Trump fires 2 Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission, seeking more
control over regulators
[March 19, 2025] By
WILL WEISSERT and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired two Democratic members of
the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, intensifying efforts to exert
his administration's control over independent agencies across the
government.
Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said they'd been
dismissed illegally and would sue to block Trump's order. They also said
they consider themselves still part of the FTC, though whether they will
still have access to their offices and logistical tools like email going
forward was unclear.
Removing Bedoya and Slaughter could free up space on the five-member FTC
for new commissioners loyal to Trump and his priorities and policies.
The White House confirmed the dismissals. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, a
Republican whom Trump designated for the role upon taking office in
January, released a statement on X saying he had no doubts about Trump's
“constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to
ensure democratic accountability.”
The FTC is a regulator created by Congress that enforces consumer
protection measures and antitrust legislation. Its seats are typically
comprised of three members of the president’s party and two from the
opposing party.

Commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the
Senate. They serve seven-year terms that are staggered to prevent
multiple vacancies at once.
The ousted commissioners pointed to past Supreme Court rulings that
sought to solidify the body’s independence and only allowed
commissioners to be removed for cause.
“The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption plain and
simple,” Bedoya, who was appointed in 2021 by President Joe Biden and
confirmed in May 2022, posted on X.
He added, "The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to
fight fraudsters and monopolists” but now “the president wants the FTC
to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.”
The White House countered late Tuesday night that other Supreme Court
rulings affirmed the president’s “unrestricted” power to remove
"executive officers who had been appointed by him.”
Slaughter was first appointed to the FTC during Trump's first
administration in 2018, and served as its acting chair in 2021. Biden
renominated her for a second term in February 2023. Slaughter said in
her statement that the "law protects the independence of the Commission
because the law serves the American public, not corporate power.”
“Removing opposition may not change what the Trump majority can do, but
it does change whether they will have accountability when they do it,"
she wrote.
In 1935, the Supreme Court held that the president couldn’t fire leaders
of independent agencies without cause. Otherwise, the agencies would
become more political and less independent.
While that restriction was eroded in a subsequent decision that came in
2020, it has largely remained in place.
The firings will likely intensify the legal fight around key questions
about the extent of presidential powers — battles that could have
consequences for other independent agencies, including the Federal
Reserve. But the Trump administration has so far been undeterred in its
push to expand a president’s ability to remove such officials at will.
The president used a previous executive order to give the White House
more control over the FTC and other regulators, including the Securities
and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

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The Federal Trade Commission building is seen in Washington on Dec.
8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
 On a subsequent conference call with
reporters, Bedoya noted that the FTC was engaged in cases involving
tech giants and drug companies and predicted that the move will help
powerful corporations while meaning higher prices for consumers.
“Who does this attempt to remove us help?” Bedoya asked. “Who it
helps is billionaires. And I think it opens the door for corruption
and for (a) law enforcement apparatus controlled, not by the law,
but by money.”
Slaughter said on the same call that she and Bedoya were informed at
the end of the day about Trump's action and that no specific reason
was given for the dismissals.
“We are not going to go," Slaughter said. "And we certainly are not
going to go quietly.”
She added, "Markets should be worried.”
“This is a sign that the guardrails are coming off the protections
for freedom and fairness in our economy," Slaughter said. “And it is
a sign that honest businesses should be worried about corruption
permeating markets.”
The issue of Trump asserting greater influence is particularly
fraught for the Federal Reserve, an institution that has long sought
to protect its independence. Economists and financial markets
broadly support an independent Fed because they worry a politicized
version would be more reluctant to take unpopular steps to fight
inflation, such as raise interest rates.
Trump has signaled he will let Fed chair Jerome Powell serve out his
term, which ends May 2026. Yet he threatened to fire Powell in 2018
when Powell raised interest rates, a move that can often slow
growth.
The dismissals of Bedoya and Slaughter follow the Trump
administration removing several years worth of online “business
guidance” blogs published by the FTC under the Biden administration.
According to various snapshots from the Internet Archive, more than
350 blog posts published on the agency’s website were taken down as
of Tuesday.
The removed blog posts covered a wide range of information, from
steps the FTC was taking to prevent harms of AI-enabled voice
cloning to an explanation of its lawsuit against Amazon’s Prime
subscription program. Blog posts published between 2010 and 2017,
under Obama, are still up on the agency’s website.

Nidhi Hegde, executive director of the American Economic Liberties
Project, an advocacy group that opposes monopolistic practices, said
Bedoya and Slaughter's dismissals were “illegal and void.”
“Independent agencies like the FTC exist to enforce the law as
written by Congress and protect the public interest," Hegde said in
a statement. “Not to be gutted at the whim of a president.”
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the only Democrat on both the
Judiciary and Commerce committees, called the dismals “a blatantly
illegal act."
“It is another unconstitutional power grab. I'm glad you're suing,”
Klobuchar said on the conference call with Bedoya and Slaughter. "In
the end, I strongly believe that you will win and you will be
reinstated as commissioners."
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Associated Press writer Haleluya Hadero in South Bend, Indiana,
contributed to this report.
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