President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members on the normally sleepy regulatory board overseeing freight rail, a move that has the potential to break what could be a 2-2 tie as it weighs the largest railroad merger in U.S. history.
Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus posted Wednesday night on LinkedIn that he had been notified via email of his immediate termination from the board responsible for approving railroad mergers. But he also claimed that the email did not list a cause for his firing, which he said made the firing “legally invalid.”
“Ironically, this comes at a time when the Board is considering significant pressing matters of critical importance to both our national freight rail network,” Primus wrote. “With all of this in mind, I plan to continue to discharge my duties as a member of the Board and, if I’m prevented from doing so, I will explore my legal options.”
The board is currently considering Union Pacific’s $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern. If the deal goes through, it would create the first transcontinental railroad in the country, spanning 50,000 miles across 43 states.
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A Democrat, Primus was first nominated by President Donald Trump in 2020 to the five-seat board. In 2023, he was the lone dissenting vote against the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
The following year, then-President Joe Biden appointed Primus as board chair — a position that was revoked after Trump was inaugurated in January, though he remained on the board as a member.
“I have worked tirelessly to build bipartisan trust and have demonstrated myself to be truly an independent Board member that has consistently rendered fair and impartial decisions,” his LinkedIn post read.
In a statement to NOTUS, the White House confirmed the firing, saying that Primus “did not align with the President’s America First agenda.”
“The administration intends to nominate new, more qualified members to the Surface Transportation Board in short order,” the statement continued.
Primus’ name and biography were removed from the Surface Transportation Board website by Thursday morning.
Other independent boards targeted by the Trump administration for firings so far this year include the National Transportation Safety Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
At the Federal Reserve this week, Trump also fired governor Lisa Cook after she refused to step down. On Thursday he filed a lawsuit arguing the White House lacked the authority to remove her.
The union representing 230,000 railroad workers quickly condemned Primus’ firing in a release Thursday, calling it “nothing short of outrageous.”
“Appointed bodies established through federal code are not designed to be erased at the whim of powerful corporate interests,” the union wrote. “This action is unprecedented, unlawful in spirit, and reeks of direct interference from hedge funds and the nation’s largest rail carriers.”
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