Trump fires both Democratic FTC commissioners

President Trump fired Federal Trade Commission Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya on March 18, 2025, notifying them by email that their "continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my Administration's priorities." The dismissals left the five-person agency with only two members and raised immediate questions about whether the FTC could operate. Both commissioners called the firings illegal and sued to challenge them, and a district court judge later ruled that Slaughter's firing was unlawful before the Supreme Court stayed that order.