Fired FTC commissioner sounds ‘blinking red alarm’ over apparent rise of billionaire power under Trump

The US is in the midst of an extraordinary battle between “the rule of law versus the rule of billionaires”, a top Democratic government official and attorney has warned, after his unprecedented firing by Donald Trump.

Alvaro Bedoya, abruptly terminated as a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, sounded a “blinking red alarm” over backroom “quid pro quo” dealmaking he said appears to be taking place inside the Trump administration.

Bedoya and his colleague, commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, another Democrat, were fired from the FTC, Washington’s top antitrust watchdog. Both Bedoya and Slaughter have sued the administration over their respective dismissals, which they argue were illegal.

In an interview with the Guardian, Bedoya expressed fear that his firing is a sign of billionaires’ growing power over the federal government. “This isn’t about progressive versus conservative,” he said. “This is about the rule of law versus the rule of billionaires.”

Independent and bipartisan agencies like the FTC are typically shielded from direct control by the White House. Supreme court precedents interpret the FTC Act’s terms, which only allow the president to remove FTC commissioners for “insufficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance” in office.

When Bedoya first confirmed his firing on social media, he declared that the president “wants the FTC to be a lap dog for his golfing buddies”. In the days that followed, he has continued to express alarm about actions taken under Trump – and the striking group of wealthy allies and supporters he has amassed leading up to, and since, his victory last November.

At the FTC, Bedoya was involved in several cases against Amazon, for example, including allegations of the company keeping children’s voice data despite parental objections, and forcing small businesses into unfair pricing schemes. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, who joined a string of tech billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, and Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, at Trump’s inauguration.

“I think it’s remarkable that one of the last public statements I made before the president tried to fire me was denouncing the high injury rates and the working conditions at Amazon warehouse floors, such that the company literally has to position vending machines on its warehouse floors that dispense painkillers,” said Bedoya.

The connection between Trump and Bezos should be clear to anyone watching closely, he suggested. Amazon donated $1m to the president’s inaugural fund, and its streaming arm reportedly paid millions of dollars for the rights for a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.

“When you see a company with a safety track record like Amazon’s, then you see the donations from Mr Bezos and the deals that are being cut between the first family and Mr Bezos’s company, and then you see that the person nominated to head up the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is none other than an Amazon safety executive … it would be foolish to not worry about the possibility of corruption and the possibility of corporate pardon,” said Bedoya.

“I don’t know what most Americans think, but I know what I think when I see it,” he added.

Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary, said: “President Trump has the lawful authority to manage personnel within the executive branch. President Trump will continue to rid the federal government of bad actors unaligned with his common sense agenda the American people decisively voted for.”

Bedoya’s claims about Amazon are “inaccurate and misleading”, a spokesperson for the company said.

“Like any responsible employer, we make basic first aid items like over-the-counter pain relievers available to employees,” the spokesperson added, claiming that injury rates have fallen since 2019. Parents can “easily delete individual child voice recordings and transcripts” on an app linked to Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, according to the company.

Bedoya also emphasized that the corrupting influence of money in politics is not limited to one party. New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, a registered Democrat, is involved in an ongoing saga of corruption allegations, even as the Department of Justice seeks to dismiss the charges in a move that has been questioned by many.

“For me, it’s a blinking red alarm about what happened with Eric Adams at the Department of Justice, where it appears there was some kind of deal struck between senior administration officials and the mayor to drop the charges against the mayor in exchange for some kind of quid pro quo,” Bedoya said.

“I’m worried that that is going to come for a place like the FTC,” he said. “Because in a world where the president can fire anybody on that commission at any time, how do you say no, right?”

Though Bedoya can’t say whether a majority of Americans see things the way he does, he’s hopeful that the influence of billionaires will becoming increasingly obvious, alerting more and more people to corruption within the US government.

Over the weekend, he spoke at a packed rally hosted by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While Trump continues to openly mock Democrats, such as in his controversial address to a joint session of Congress, certain leftist politicians are seeing an opportunity to foster the unity Trump failed to bring to the White House.

“I think what was so exciting about that rally is that it wasn’t just about Democrats. Yes, Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez are Democrats, but afterwards at that rally, I was talking to the people in the audience and it was all kinds of people,” Bedoya said.

“It was Democrats, it was Republicans, it was people who hated politics but know that something is wrong.”