Barely a week after Donald Trump was inaugurated as President for a second time in January 2025, he fired Jennifer Abruzzo – general counsel at the top US agency for workers’ rights.
The President didn’t stop there. He proceeded to fire a string of senior officials from other independent agencies, including the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
But Trump’s love of sackings has faced challenges, since heads of independent federal agencies were legally protected from arbitrary political firing.
In June, the Supreme Court, packed with Trump’s nominees, cleared his path, ruling that a president can remove agency heads at will.
Abruzzo, who worked for the National Labor Relations Board for more than 20 years, says the decision has radically changed the balance of power in Washington, giving Trump unprecedented powers to both attack his enemies and protect his allies.
