Trump Fires 2 FTC Dems, Seeks Control  03/19 06:09

   

   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.

   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."