DJT Fires Democratic Commissioners from CPSC

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Donald Trump fired the three Democrats among the five Commissioners of the bipartisan independent Consumer Products Safety Commission.

CPSC was created by Congress to oversee safety standards for products. Its five commissioners are Presidential appointees with the advice and consent of the Senate. No more than three commissioners can from the same party. Aside from appointment of commissioners, CPSC is not meant to be under the President’s control. By law, commissioners can only be fired for neglect of duty or malfeasance. Trump did not cite any legitimate cause for the firings.

Richard Trumka and Mary T. Boyle were informed of their firing by email 8 May 2025. Alexander Hoehn-Saric received no such email, but said on 9 May Acting CPSC Chairman Peter Feldman “has locked me out of the agency and is preventing me from performing my duties.”

The three were fired after refusing to allow representatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency into CPSC. DOGE is a subset of a White House IT team, not a government department.

Trumka said, “If this agency is controlled and gutted by DOGE, everyday Americans won’t be able to trust that the products they buy are safe, or worse yet, assume that they are and will only find they’re not when someone’s hurt.”

DOGE entered CPSC on 9 May.

Reputedly, Trump intends to shut the agency, making the Department of Health and Human Services oversee the safety of thousands of consumer products. Consumer safety advocates say that would be illegal, and would allow corporate influence and political concerns to interfere with safeguards.

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