LIST: THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT

The CPSC case marks the third, separate termination by the president of Democrats serving at independent agencies this week alone.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who had served in her position since 2016, and the vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Alvin Brown, two days prior. And back in March, former Federal Trade Commission commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, both Democrats, claimed that Trump acted “illegally” in firing them before their terms concluded.

While senior White House officials maintain that the president was operating within his legal authority, the fired federal personnel say they plan to challenge Trump’s actions in court. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers signal they plan to rally around the ousted officials as a means of opposing the president’s plans to shrink the federal government.

Trumka and Alex Hoehn-Saric, the third Democrat CPSC commissioner nominated by Biden in 2021, joined Democratic lawmakers on a call with reporters Friday afternoon to make their case against the terminations.

Trumka said that he was informed of his firing in an email, reviewed by the Washington Examiner Friday evening, by Trump’s deputy director of presidential personnel, Trent Morse.

“Our removals are the first step in eliminating the CPSC,” he declared. “I plan to fight my removal and continue to fight for the agency in the coming months.”

Hoehn-Saric did not receive a termination email like Trumpka and Boyle, but he said that, on Friday, acting CPSC chairman Peter Feldman “locked [him] out of the agency and is preventing [him] from performing [his] duties.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters on the same call that Congress’s role in standing up CPSC strictly prohibits the president from firing commissioners before their terms expire.

“Congress very specifically made this agency independent and prohibited the firing of these commissioners, except for malfeasance and misconduct and a number of specified reasons, because they wanted it to be insulated against exactly this type of political interference,” he claimed, adding “the dismantling of this agency in this way runs exactly contrary to the intent of Congress, which can establish independent agencies.”

Blumenthal suggested that the Trump White House’s theory of the “unitary” executive branch, a reading of the Constitution favored by many top Trump officials, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, is a “fantastical contraction” that would be struck down by the Supreme Court if challenged.

“What it will mean is infant deaths, small children at risk of maiming or dying,” he added, asked to explain why everyday American households should care about firings at little-known government agencies. “We’re talking real life and death stuff here, so the average American should care about what this agency does and it should not swallow this intellectual contraction of the unitary executive branch.”

Trump critics have already filed nearly 200 lawsuits since January seeking to slow Trump’s agenda or block specific actions. As of Friday, according to the Associated Press’s tracking tool, 79 suits have resulted in Trump’s actions being fully or partially blocked by federal judges, 46 were decided in Trump’s favor, and 75 are still pending decisions.

Despite efforts from Democrats to highlight the firings, top Republican officials expressed confidence Friday that the president was acting within his legal authority.

“Cry harder,” a top Republican Hill aide mused when asked about Democrats rallying behind fired government employees. “Do they seriously think voters are just gonna turn on POTUS because some overpaid bureaucrat is out of a job? Give me a break.”

“It’s a federal agency in which branch? The Executive Branch. Who’s the head of the Executive Branch? The President of the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Friday’s briefing when asked about the CPSC firings. “He has the right to fire people in the executive branch. Pretty simply.”

Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, meanwhile, sought to tamp down safety concerns for American families that might arise from the CPSC firings.

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“The important thing to understand is that we don’t just let people stay in their jobs just because they were always there, right? We have to examine the performance of specific employees, whether they’re doing the best that they can do,” he told reporters Friday afternoon. “In particular, as a parent, there’s been lots of concerns that I’ve had, that my family’s had, about product safety in this country. We can absolutely do better, and we will do better, but that requires hiring the best people for the job, and President Trump will always hire the best.”