A White House official confirmed the firings of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya to the Washington Examiner.
The move is another step by the president to remake the federal government. Last month, Trump signed an executive order giving him greater power to supervise independent agencies. The FTC traditionally has five members, three for the president’s party and two for the minority party.
Both Democratic FTC commissioners released statements on Tuesday protesting their ouster and claimed they would take the case through the court system.
“I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption plain and simple,” Bedoya wrote in a statement.
Bedoya also claimed that Trump “wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.”
