Trump fires Democrats on Consumer Product Safety Commission (2025)

Federal law states that a CPSC commissioner can be removed from the Senate-confirmed position only for neglect of duty or malfeasance. That view appeared to receive support from the Supreme Court in October, when it declined to hear a case arguing that the CPSC enjoyed unconstitutional protection from the president’s control. The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that the president controls executive agencies.

“He has the right to fire people within the executive branch,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a news briefing Friday when asked about the firings. “It’s a pretty simple answer.”

CPSC Democratic Commissioners Mary Boyle, a longtime agency employee before her appointment, and Richard L. Trumka Jr., who gained national attention in 2023 for suggesting that the CPSC could ban gas stoves because of their indoor air pollution, said in statements that they received emails from the White House on Thursday notifying them of their firings. The third Democrat, Alex Hoehn-Saric, who served as the CPSC’s chairman until earlier this year, said acting chairman Peter Feldman, a Republican, told him Friday that the president was also seeking to remove him.

Trump’s actions leave the safety regulator with just two members on its five-member board — Feldman and fellow Republican Douglas Dziak.

Four U.S. senators — Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) — wrote to Trump on Friday urging him to reverse his decision, calling it an “illegal order.”

The CPSC regulates the safety of everyday consumer products, such as strollers, toasters and bicycles. It enforces safety standards and coordinates product safety recalls, such as banning dangerous phthalate chemicals from plastic children’s toys and pushing companies to recall furniture that tips, creating a crushing hazard for children, or jogging strollers at risk of falling apart.

But its moves are not always popular with the companies it regulates.

Amazon filed a lawsuit this year asking a federal court to throw out a new CPSC order holding the company legally responsible for some harmful products sold on its site. Amazon argued that it acted more as a shipper than a retailer for some products, and so it didn’t need to cooperate with CPSC recalls. Amazon, whose founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post, said in court filings that the CPSC is unconstitutional because the president can’t fire commissioners.

Trump now appears to be testing that claim.

The firings took place hours after members of the U.S. DOGE Service, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, visited the agency Thursday. The Democratic commissioners objected to two DOGE employees being formally detailed to the agency, Trumka said.

Last week, the CPSC voted 3-2 along party lines to publish proposed safety standards for lithium-ion batteries used in smaller products such as electric bicycles and electric scooters. The proposal noted that the batteries in e-bikes and e-scooters have been known to catch fire, resulting in at least 39 fatalities and 181 injuries nationwide.

The three Democratic commissioners said they planned to oppose the move to fire them in court.

Hoehn-Saric said in a statement that Trump’s action “is unlawful and is part of this Administration’s efforts to eliminate federal agencies, personnel, and policies that have made Americans safer.”

Trumka also argued that his firing was illegal.

“I have a set term on this independent, bipartisan Commission that does not expire until October of 2028, and I will continue protecting the American people from harm through that time,” he wrote. “The President would like to end this nation’s long history of independent agencies, so he’s chosen to ignore the law and pretend independence doesn’t exist. I’ll see him in court.”

Boyle said she did not intend to back down and planned to continue serving at the CPSC. It was unclear how the commissioners would do this.

“Until my term as commissioner concludes,” she said, “I will insist on following these time-tested principles, and I will use my voice to speak out on behalf of safety.”