Trump Fires Board Member of Regulator Weighing Rail Merger
Robert Primus, a member of the Surface Transportation Board, says he will challenge the termination
- President Trump fired Robert Primus, a Democratic board member of the Surface Transportation Board.
- Primus opposed the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, approved by the regulator in 2023.
- Primus plans to challenge the termination; the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Trump on Wednesday fired Robert Primus, a board member of the railroad regulator that is weighing the proposed megamerger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
Primus, a Democrat, was nominated by Trump to the Surface Transportation Board in 2020 and began serving in 2021. He was the only member of the board to oppose the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, a tie-up was approved by the regulator in 2023. At the time, Primus said the deal wasn’t in the public interest.
Primus said Wednesday that he planned to challenge the termination.
“This is deeply troubling and legally invalid,” Primus wrote in an email to The Wall Street Journal. He said he planned to continue his duties as a board member and that if he was prevented from doing so, he would seek legal options.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has been pushing to expand his control over independent government agencies with a spree of firings. He has dismissed Democratic appointees at the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And earlier this week, he said he was removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Primus received an email shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday from Mary Sprowls, who works in the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the Surface Transportation Board is terminated, effective immediately,” she wrote. She gave no explanation for the termination. Primus was removed from the list of board members on the regulator’s website.
Primus last year was appointed chairman of the board by former President Joe Biden. Trump in January tapped Republican board member Patrick Fuchs to move into the chairman role.
Besides Fuchs, the remaining board members are Michelle Schultz, a Republican, and Karen Hedlund, a Democrat. The Surface Transportation Board is authorized to have up to five members. It is the economic regulator for the railroad industry, handling service disputes between shippers and railroad operators as well as merger proposals between railroads.
Primus said the White House’s actions would weaken the board and “adversely affect the freight rail network in a way that may ultimately hurt consumers and the economy.”