Federal Trade Commission Democrat claims Trump firing her threatens market stability

President Trump's decision to fire the two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission is not only an illegal ploy to make the FTC "a lapdog for his golfing buddies," according to one of them, but also a threat to the stability of the markets the FTC oversees, according to the other.

Former Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter told CNBC hours before the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady that this wasn't about losing her job, but "all of the structures of government that protect market stability." 

The markets "should be very concerned," Slaughter said. "If I can be fired, I don't know why [Fed chairman] Jerome Powell can't be fired."

Trump's appointed chair, Republican Andrew Ferguson, released a statement Wednesday reminding his departed colleagues that Trump is "head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power in our government. 

"I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government," Ferguson said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a White House briefing that Democrats Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya were given "ample notice." 

Asked if the Trump administration was trying to get the 1935 Supreme Court precedent Humphrey's Executor v. United States overturned, she said the "goal was to let these individuals go. If we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will."