• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 18, 2025

On Tuesday, one month after claiming power over the Federal Trade Commission, President Donald Trump fired Democratic commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya.

Bedoya denounced the move as illegal, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption plain and simple.”

He added in a follow-up post: “*tried to illegally fire me. I’ll see the president in court.”

Slaughter reportedly also said the firing was illegal.

Bedoya was confirmed by the Senate in 2022 and his term doesn't expire until September 25, 2026. Slaughter joined the FTC in 2018, and was confirmed for a second time in March 2024. Her term expires in September 2029.

Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) blasted Trump's move, as did advocacy groups including Free Press, Public Knowledge and Public Citizen.

“This is outrageous,” Klobuchar stated. “President Trump’s dismissal of Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya is not only illegal but also hurts consumers by undermining an independent agency that Congress established to protect consumers from fraud, scams, and monopoly power.”

Cantwell also called the ousters illegal.

“The FTC for 100 years has protected consumers -- from stopping predatory scams to blocking illegal mergers,” she stated. “You can’t just fire commissioners because you don’t like them, you can only fire them for cause.”

Free Press Vice President of Policy Matt Wood added that the firings are “a brazen attack on the independence of the FTC, on the checks and balances that undergird our democracy, and on the people most in need of those protections.”

That organization also noted that the moves defy “a long-standing Supreme Court precedent” that protects independent agencies from White House control.

In 1935, the Supreme Court ruled that the president could only remove an FTC commissioner for cause.

Public Knowledge added that Trump's move leaves the FTC without a quorum. 

"Any official action performed now is a direct violation of the law," Elise Phillip, policy counsel at the organization, stated.