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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 raising 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's 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 the 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 dismal “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.”
Cybertrucks set ablaze. Bullets and Molotov cocktails aimed at Tesla showrooms.
Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas. While no injuries have been reported, Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted.
There has been a clear uptick since President Donald Trump took office and empowered Musk to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency that is slashing government spending. Experts on domestic extremism say it’s impossible to know yet if the spate of incidents will balloon into a long-term pattern.
In Trump’s first term, his properties in New York City, Washington, and elsewhere became a natural place for protest. In the early days of his second term, Tesla is filling that role.
“Tesla is an easy target,” said Randy Blazak, a sociologist who studies political violence. “They’re rolling down our streets. They have dealerships in our neighborhoods.”
Musk critics have organized dozens of peaceful demonstrations at Tesla dealerships and factories across North America and Europe. Some Tesla owners, including a U.S. senator who feuded with Musk, have vowed to sell their vehicles.
But the attacks are keeping law enforcement busy.
Prosecutors in Colorado charged a woman last month in connection with a string of attacks on Tesla dealerships, including Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building.
Federal agents in South Carolina last week arrested a man they say set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit that authorities found writings critical of the government and DOGE in his bedroom and wallet.
“The statement made mention of sending a message based on these beliefs,” the agent wrote.
A number of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.
An Oregon man is facing charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted.
Four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot in Seattle earlier this month. On Friday, witnesses reported a man poured gasoline on an unoccupied Tesla Model S and started a fire on a Seattle street.
In Las Vegas, several Tesla vehicles were set ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tesla service center where the word “resist” was also painted in red across the building’s front doors. Authorities said at least one person threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into the vehicles.
“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think — the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, said at a news conference. “None of those factors are lost on us.”
Tesla becomes a target for the left
Tesla was once the darling of the left. Helped to viability by a $465 million federal loan during the Obama administration, the company popularized electric vehicles and proved, despite their early reputation, that they didn’t have to be small, stodgy, underpowered and limited in range.
More recently, though, Musk has allied himself with the right. He bought the social network Twitter, renamed it X, and erased restrictions that had infuriated conservatives. He spent an estimated $250 million to boost Trump’s 2024 campaign, becoming by far his biggest benefactor.
Musk continues to run Tesla — as well as X and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX — while also serving as Trump’s adviser.
Tesla stock doubled in value in the weeks after Trump’s election but has since shed all those gains.
Trump gave a boost to the company when he turned the White House driveway into an electric vehicle showroom. The president promoted the vehicles and said he would purchase an $80,000 Model S, eschewing his fierce past criticism of electric vehicles.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Musk briefly addressed the vandalism Monday during an appearance on Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast, saying “at least some of it is organized and paid for” by “leftwing organizations in America, funded by leftwing billionaires, essentially.”
“This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong,” Musk wrote Tuesday on X, sharing a video of burning Teslas in Las Vegas. “Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks.”
The progressive group Indivisible, which published a guide for supporters to organize “Musk Or Us” protests around the country, said in a statement that all of its guidance is publicly available and “it explicitly encourages peaceful protest and condemns any acts of violence or vandalism.”
Some Tesla owners have resorted to cheeky bumper stickers to distance themselves from their vehicle’s new stigma, and perhaps deter would-be vandals. They say things like “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy,” or “I just wanted an electric car. Sorry guys.”
Prices for used Cybertrucks, Tesla’s most distinctive product, have dropped nearly 8% since Trump took office, according to CarGurus, which aggregates used car vehicle listings. The market as a whole remained steady over the period.
The White House vows a crackdown
The White House has thrown its weight behind Musk, the highest-profile member of the administration and a key donor to committees promoting Trump’s political interests. Trump has said Tesla vandalism amounts to “domestic terror,” and Trump has threatened retribution, warning that those who target the company are “going to go through hell.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’d opened an investigation “to see how is this being funded, who is behind this.”
“If you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out because we’re coming after you,” Bondi said Friday on Fox Business Network. In a statement Tuesday, she vowed to “continue investigations that impose severe consequences,” including for “those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.”
Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, said left-wing political violence tends to target property rather than people. He views the rise of neo-Nazi groups as a bigger security threat at this point.
“I’s not the type of act that I would prioritize,” Clarke said. “Not right now compared to all the other threats that are out there.”
Theresa Ramsdell is the president of the Tesla Owners of Washington State, a club for Tesla enthusiasts, and she and her husband own three of them.
“Hate on Elon and Trump all you want — that’s fine and dandy, it’s your choice,” she said. “It doesn’t justify ruining somebody’s property, vandalizing it, destroying it, setting it on fire. There are other ways to get your voice heard that’s more effective.”
Someone recently slapped a “no Elon” sticker on the tailgate of her Cybertruck, but she said she doesn’t intend to stop driving her Teslas. Other club members have taken a similar view, she said.
“I love my car. It’s the safest car,” Ramsdell said. “I’m not going to let somebody else judge me for the car I drive.”
To limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone.
Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “My Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.
The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.
Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas, including those with disabilities, mobility limitations, and those who live far from SSA offices and have limited internet access.
The plan also comes as the agency plans to shutter dozens of Social Security offices throughout the country and has already laid out plans to lay off thousands of workers.
In addition to the identity verification change, the agency announced that it plans to expedite processing of recipients’ direct deposit change requests – both in person and online – to one business day. Previously, online direct deposit changes were held for 30 days.
“The Social Security Administration is losing over $100 million a year in direct deposit fraud,” Leland Dudek, the agency’s acting commissioner, said on a Tuesday evening call with reporters — his first call with the media. “Social Security can better protect Americans while expediting service.”
He said a problem with eliminating fraudulent claims is that “the information that we use through knowledge-based authentication is already in the public domain.”
“This is a common-sense measure,” Dudek added.
More than 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive retirement and disability benefits through the Social Security Administration.
Connecticut Rep. John Larson, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee said in a statement that “by requiring seniors and disabled Americans to enroll online or in person at the same field offices they are trying to close, rather than over the phone, Trump and Musk are trying to create chaos and inefficiencies at SSA so they can privatize the system.”
The DOGE website says that leases for 47 Social Security field offices across the country, including in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina, have been or will be ended. However, Dudek downplayed the impact of its offices shuttering, saying many were small remote hearing sites that served few members of the public.
Many Americans have been concerned that SSA office closures and massive layoffs of federal workers — part of an effort by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the size of the federal government — will make getting benefits even more difficult.
Musk has pushed debunked theories about Social Security and described the federal benefit programs as rife with fraud, and called it a “Ponzi scheme” suggesting the program will be a primary target in his crusade to reduce government spending.
Voters have flooded town halls across the country to question Republican lawmakers about the Trump administration’s cuts, including its plans for the old-age benefits program.
In addition a group of labor unions last week sued and asked a federal court for an emergency order to stop DOGE from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans.
Wholesale egg prices across the U.S. have dropped precipitously since hitting an all-time high just a few weeks ago, but it’s not clear if consumers will see significant savings at the checkout ahead of the upcoming and “egg-centric” Easter holiday.
Widespread outbreaks of avian bird flu have decimated U.S. flocks and helped drive wholesale egg prices to a record $8.58 per dozen on Feb. 28. But as of last Friday, prices paid by retail outlets declined to $4.83 per dozen, according to Expana data cited in a report by CNBC.
Consumer demand has declined amid the record-high prices but is set to head back up as Easter draws closer. And it’s not clear how fast lower wholesale costs will show up on shoppers' receipts. Easter is April 20.
In a report released earlier this week, the USDA noted that no new incidents of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been reported so far in March, but while wholesale supplies have begun to recover, price decreases were not yet reflected in the retail market.
“The calendar is nearing the start of the Easter demand season and it remains to be seen if price levels will be able to find a level supportive of holiday demand,” the USDA report reads. “According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, in February, the Consumer Price Index for eggs increased 10.4%, 159% over the year-ago level, with an average price of $5.90 per dozen, up $0.94 per dozen from last month.”
A new analysis from economists with Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute found that since Jan. 1, there have been over 40 separate incidents of HPAI infections in the U.S. commercial table egg industry, causing the loss of more than 28 million laying hens, per USDA data.
The outbreak has impacted flocks in nine states — Arizona, California, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington. As of Feb. 1, the total U.S. flock size numbered about 291 million hens, which means roughly 9% of the laying hens have been lost in just the past two months.
Wells Fargo industry analysts note that it takes several months to sterilize egg production facilities and repopulate the location with immature birds. Egg production, according to the report, is lost for an additional period until those replacement hens begin to lay eggs.
“Because of the loss of so many hens in this last cycle of HPAI, the supply of new chicks is also under pressure,” the report reads. “A company can’t order a new flock of a million hens and get that overnight. Recovery takes time.”
The Agri-Food Institute report warns that while outbreaks appear to have abated so far in March, bird flu incidents are likely this time of year and consumers should expect ongoing egg price volatility.
“Egg prices will likely remain highly variable for the near future, but at a higher-than-usual level,” the report reads. “In the short term, we will likely see a continuation of high egg prices.”
Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday.
To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the Pentagon aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave.
A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs left empty by the hiring freeze. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don’t hurt military readiness.
The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies.
Acknowledging that “some” military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands.
The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers, and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave. The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don’t affect critical national security jobs.
Officials would not say how many Defense Department civilians requested the voluntary resignation plan — also known as the “Fork in the Road” offer — but said more requested it than the number who eventually were approved.
The defense official said the “vast majority” were allowed but that in some cases, people were denied for national security reasons or to make sure that too many people in one office didn’t all leave.
He added that Hegseth also has given the secretaries of the military branches and Defense Department personnel leaders the authority to grant exemptions to the hiring freeze.
An average of 70,000 civilians are hired each year, which amounts to about 6,000 a month, he said. Because the services have a good deal of latitude in determining which jobs should not be subject to the freeze, it’s not clear what portion of those 70,000 would actually be eliminated.
Plans to cut probationary workers, which the Pentagon said targeted about 5,400 of the roughly 54,000 in the department, are already on hold due to court challenges. Federal judges ordered the administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers who had been let go, finding legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out.
The official added that Hegseth is confident the staffing cuts can be done without negatively affecting military readiness. The Pentagon chief last month in Germany noted that he was planning to welcome DOGE to the Pentagon, adding that “there are waste, redundancies and headcounts in headquarters that need to be addressed.”
Across the government, about 75,000 federal workers are being let go through “deferred resignation program” buyouts. And at least 24,000 probationary employees were initially let go in the now-paused mass firings across multiple agencies since Trump took office, according to lawsuits challenging the firings. The government has not confirmed that number.
The personnel reductions come as top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned.
In addition, President Donald Trump has ordered a large-scale reduction in force to cut jobs and reduce the overall size of the government. Defense officials could not provide any details on what that would do at the Pentagon or what proposed cuts are being discussed.
The 9-to-5 federal worker just got a lifeline 🔄
The Trump administration is reinstating nearly 25,000 probationary federal employees after federal judges ruled their terminations illegal
This massive reinstatement effort spans 18 different agencies, with the Treasury Department bringing back the most workers (7,613)
Most reinstated employees are being placed on paid administrative leave while agencies navigate the complex reintegration process.
If you're one of these reinstated federal workers, here's what you need to be thinking about right now:
Prepare for uncertainty - The administration has appealed these rulings
Continue to look for a new job
Consider your long-term career strategy
The Trump administration is reinstating at least 24,500 recently fired probationary federal workers after several court orders ruled that the firings were not legal.
What to know:
- Many of the reinstated federal workers have been placed on paid administrative leave.
- Workers brought back in some departments will also receive back pay.
- All employees offered reinstatement to full duty would be onboarded again in their departments.
- Trump officials appealed the decision and said the reinstated workers could be fired again in a matter of weeks if a higher court reversed the judge's ruling.
Here's the full list of reinstated workers per agency:
1. Environmental Protection Agency: 419
2. Department of Energy: 555
3. Department of Commerce: 791
4. Department of Homeland Security: 310
5. Department of Transportation: 775
6. Department of Education: 65
7. Department of Housing and Urban Development: 299
8. Department of Interior: 1,710
9. Department of Labor: 167
10. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 117
11. Small Business Administration: 298
12. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: 156
13. Human Capital and Talen Management: 270
14. General Services Administration: 366
15. Treasury Department: 7,613 (including 7,315 IRS employees)
16. Department of Agriculture: 5,714
17. Department of Veterans Affairs: 1,683
18. Department of Health and Human Services: 3,248
There were 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. in 2023 — the lowest number since 1979 when 3.5 million births were recorded. The data, published Tuesday by the National Center for Health Statistics, also reflects a decline in the general fertility rate to the lowest level since data collection began in 1909: 54.5 births per 1,000 women. The U.S. trend toward smaller families mirrors dramatic slowdowns also seen in other parts of the world, from Europe to China, Bloomberg reports.
- There were 3.6 million births in the European Union in 2023, reflecting a slowdown not seen in more than 60 years.
- There were 9.5 million births in China in 2024, the second-lowest in the country’s history.