Washington, DC — On Tuesday, President Donald Trump reportedly attempted to fire Democratic Federal Trade Commission members Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter. In February, Trump’s hand-picked FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson endorsed the radical legal theory that the president can fire commissioners without cause despite federal statutes prohibiting it. Demand Progress Education Fund has been a strong champion of the FTC’s work to protect consumers and has fought back against billionaire-led efforts to defang the agency.
The following is a statement from Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress Education Fund:
“President Trump’s illegal attempt to fire Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter opens the floodgates to unfettered corruption and self-dealing. This reckless attack on the FTC invites a return to the rampant, corporate graft that brought on the Great Depression.
Billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos paid a lot for their concierge access to the White House and now President Trump is repaying their investment. The FTC is currently investigating or suing many of the biggest corporations—including Google, which announced a multi-billion dollar merger just this afternoon. These illegal firing attempts put these investigations in doubt and could seriously curb the agency’s power and responsibility to protect everyday Americans and honest, main street businesses from being scammed and trampled by megacorporations. With this action, the president is choosing to please his billionaire cronies, wreck the rule of law and do generations of damage to a critical consumer protection agency.”