President Donald Trump’s firing of the Federal Trade Commission’s two Democratic commissioners Tuesday was not only legally risky, veteran observers of the agency say, but also may diminish its stature in the eyes of the courts and the companies it regulates.
They say the move—which leaves the FTC with just two commissioners, Chair Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, both Republicans—undercuts the moral high ground the pair established after joining the panel a year ago and embracing the traditional minority party role of challenging actions that might overstep legal authority or cross into political partisanship.