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.

“I believe that the independent watchdogs have lost their independence,” she told The i Paper. “At this moment, there is no stopgap preventing the President, if he so chooses, from weaponising these agencies against his foes or, on the flip side, ordering that his corporate billionaire donors not be held accountable for violating the rights of workers.”

She warned that agencies were now far more likely to acquiesce to Trump’s whims – and less able to constrain his most extreme behaviour.

“When any agency leader’s continued employment is subject to the whim of the president, they will make decisions that align with the president’s wishes,” said Abruzzo, who was informed of her dismissal by email. “Members will temper their decisions, even if it means that they are not fully comporting with the law’s stated purpose and goal.”

Robert McWhirter, an American constitutional lawyer, told The i Paper that bodies like the Department of Education can no longer carry out the work Congress has tasked them with – affecting services and programmes that people rely on, including education and teenage pregnancy prevention.

“Trump is taking power out of the agencies, he’s shrinking the agencies, firing people,” he added.

McWhirter said the judgement would give Trump greater freedom to reshape agencies traditionally intended to operate at arm’s length from political pressure. “This is one of the biggest expansions of presidential power in modern constitutional history,” he said.

He warned that the ruling would give Trump and future presidents greater freedom to install politically aligned officials in senior roles in federal government departments and agencies. “He’ll aim to replace every Democrat on every one of these with a Republican,” he said.

Trump’s next targets

The June ruling came after former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, was dismissed following an email from the White House stating that her continued service was “inconsistent with the administration’s priorities”.

The landmark 6–3 judgement overturned a 1935 ruling in Humphrey’s Executor v United States, which limited a president’s ability to remove officials from independent agencies. For nearly a century, that decision acted as one of the principal barriers preventing presidents from exercising direct control over regulatory bodies created by Congress.

Slaughter said the ruling undermined the purpose of independent regulators like the FTC, which is designed to protect consumers and prevent unfair business practices.

“Congress made the FTC independent so it could stand up to powerful corporations, no matter who is in the White House,” Slaughter said in a post on LinkedIn.

Abuzzo said that workers and consumers had lost their protections from independent agencies. She said that after her dismissal, the absence of a functioning board for much of 2025 left workers waiting for decisions and remedies in labour disputes.

“As principal officers of an independent federal agency, our responsibility is to uphold the constitution and effectuate the mandate set by Congress in the National Labor Relations Act, not the president’s policies that may be contrary,” she said.

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the Merit Systems Protection Board, set up to protect federal employees against partisan or political practices, has stopped describing itself as an “independent” agency in internal communications.

The ruling does not automatically remove officials from office. In many cases, replacement nominees would still require Senate confirmation. However, experts say future agency leaders may be selected with greater emphasis on alignment with White House priorities.

Oliver Dunford, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, said future appointees to these bodies would probably retain technical expertise but be more closely aligned with the President’s agenda. “They will be more like the appointees for cabinet officials,” he said.

Whether the ruling triggers a fresh wave of dismissals remains unclear. Since his return to power, Trump has tried to force out swathes of federal employees across the FBI, Treasury, Justice, Education, Health and State Departments. More than 25,000 staff still in their probationary periods were removed. Many legal cases brought by those dismissed are still moving through the courts.

Dunford said predicting future removals was difficult and might depend as much on politics as legal doctrine. “It depends on Trump’s mood and, probably, on agency targets,” he said.

Dunford said the court’s reasoning could be applied broadly across agencies. “All of them, except the Fed [Federal Reserve], are vulnerable, at least all that exercise traditional executive powers like investigating and enforcing the laws,” he said. He pointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, set up to guard against market manipulation, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates TV and internet, as agencies particularly vulnerable under the ruling.

Trump has already repeatedly pressured the FCC – under the leadership of ally Brendan Carr – to act against broadcasters he dislikes, calling for ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The commission has been reviewing the licences held by Disney’s eight ABC-owned stations.

On Friday, Trump nominated Danielle Thumann Severs, a senior FCC lawyer and adviser to Carr, to fill one of two vacant seats on the five-member commission. Her appointment could give Trump greater control over broadcast regulation, allowing him to pursue those he deems enemies and protect himself.

Perhaps most importantly for Trump, Dunford warns, his enhanced control over independent agencies is likely to make them “less willing to investigate or take enforcement action” against him and his allies.