Trump removes Democratic board member from Surface Transportation Board

President Donald Trump fired a member of the Surface Transportation Board amid a potential merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.

Trump fired Democratic member Robert Primus on Wednesday. He was nominated to serve on the board for five years in 2020 during Trump's first term. 

“This is deeply troubling and legally invalid," Primus wrote in a post on LinkedIn. "Ironically, this comes at a time when the Board is considering significant pressing matters of critical importance to both our national freight rail network and supply chain that would directly affect large swaths of our manufacturing, agricultural, industrial and energy sectors."

Primus added in the LinkedIn post that he "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.”  

A White House source told The Hill newspaper that Primus “did not align with the President’s America First agenda and was terminated from his position by the White House.” 

The source said that the White House would nominate more "qualified" members to the Surface Transportation Board.