Rebecca Slaughter on July 13, 2023. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC in March, a move without historical precedent that has left the normally bipartisan agency with no Democrats, and she's still fighting to get her job back.
The big picture: Democrat Alvaro Bedoya, who was also fired, resigned his position to work outside the government, but Slaughter is currently embroiled in a legal battle to get her job back at the consumer protection agency led by chair Andrew Ferguson.
- A federal judge deemed her firing illegal this month, but the Trump administration was granted an emergency stay soon after.
- Ferguson has said he believes that Trump has the constitutional authority to fire FTC commissioners.
Axios caught up with Slaughter amid her recent legal victory and subsequent setback.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What was your reaction the the Trump administration immediately filing for an emergency stay following your successful court ruling?
We were under no illusions that they would do anything they could, or try anything they could, to try to keep me out of office.
- The back and forth is exhausting, but the meat of the case is on the merits of the decision at the end of the day.
- This is a lot of procedural drama, but what I really care about is vindication on the ultimate merits, by which I mean having the courts rule that the president is, in fact, required to follow the laws passed by Congress.
Have you been back to the FTC to work at all since March?
Going back to work is what I am committed to doing whenever it becomes possible.
- I was able to get in [on July 18], and the career staff absolutely followed the court order, let me in the building, got me back with an ID and set up my phone.
- The following Monday night, I was emailing with the IT support team about my computer. And then this ruling reversing the decision came down.
Have you spoken to chair Ferguson or any of the other commissioners since your firing?
No, they did not reach out to me. I have not heard from them.
Why are you sticking out the legal fight instead of finding another job?
I really believe in the underlying principles in the case. The first is the value of having independence at federal agencies. Not just the FTC, but dozens of others.
- The second is, I believe very strongly that when Congress passes laws, the job of the president is to see that those laws are faithfully executed, not that his personal policy preferences are faithfully executed. One of the laws that Congress passed includes the FTC Act, with removal restrictions. And if the president has a problem with those, he can go to Congress and ask them to change the law.
- The third is the work of the FTC is incredibly important to the everyday lives of Americans in terms of protecting their pocketbooks and their ability to participate in markets freely and fairly.
- I have been fighting hard for Americans to have free and fair competition and to have privacy and autonomy in the marketplace for seven years, and I want to keep doing that.
What did you think of the recent workshop, and subsequent public inquiry, the FTC put on around gender-affirming care for minors?
The FTC does have a strong and important history of addressing health claims that are unsupported by science, but that has never, ever, ever included going after health care treatment that is supported by accredited health care bodies.
- That is what the FTC legacy has been about, commercial sales of products that make health claims — not about standards of care promulgated by accredited medical bodies.
- That is an entirely different category, and I think a real false equivalence.
What did you think of the approval of the Omnicom-IPG merger? (This approval included a condition that the combined company cannot bar ad spending to certain platforms based on political leanings, something Elon Musk has accused companies of doing with X.)
First, they did not take action to stop an anti-competitive mega-merger. They approved the mega-merger without any structural or other conditions that go to actual competition.
- Secondly, they did so on terms that I cannot identify the relationship to any valid competition concern, but I can identify a benefit to Elon Musk specifically from those terms. And that's pretty unprecedented.
In the future, if Democrats gain power again, will they have Republican commissioners at the FTC?
It's really hard to speculate that far into the future, but it is hard to imagine why Democrats would unilaterally disarm.
- If this administration is successful in saying you don't have to have minority voices on boards and commissions as the law requires, I don't know why any president ever would.
