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President Donald Trump fired two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, intensifying efforts to exert his administration’s control over independent agencies across the government.Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said they’d been dismissed illegally and would sue to block Trump’s order. They also said they consider themselves still part of the FTC, though whether they will still have access to their offices and logistical tools like email going forward was unclear.Removing Bedoya and Slaughter could free up space on the five-member FTC for new commissioners loyal to Trump and his priorities and policies.The White House confirmed the dismissals. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, a Republican whom Trump designated for the role upon taking office in January, released a statement on X saying he had no doubts about Trump’s “constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability.”The FTC is a regulator created by Congress that enforces consumer protection measures and antitrust legislation. Its seats are typically comprised of three members of the president’s party and two from the opposing party.Commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They serve seven-year terms that are staggered to prevent multiple vacancies at once.The ousted commissioners pointed to past Supreme Court rulings that sought to solidify the body’s independence and only allowed commissioners to be removed for cause.“The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption plain and simple,” Bedoya, who was appointed in 2021 by President Joe Biden and confirmed in May 2022, posted on X.He added, “The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists” but now “the president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.”The White House countered late Tuesday night that other Supreme Court rulings affirmed the president’s “unrestricted” power to remove “executive officers who had been appointed by him.”Slaughter was first appointed to the FTC during Trump’s first administration in 2018, and served as its acting chair in 2021. Biden renominated her for a second term in February 2023. Slaughter said in her statement that the “law protects the independence of the Commission because the law serves the American public, not corporate power.”“Removing opposition may not change what the Trump majority can do, but it does change whether they will have accountability when they do it,” she wrote.In 1935, the Supreme Court held that the president couldn’t fire leaders of independent agencies without cause. Otherwise, the agencies would become more political and less independent.While that restriction was eroded in a subsequent decision that came in 2020, it has largely remained in place.The firings will likely intensify the legal fight around key questions about the extent of presidential powersbattles that could have consequences for other independent agencies, including the Federal Reserve. But the Trump administration has so far been undeterred in its push to expand a president’s ability to remove such officials at will.The president used a previous executive order to give the White House more control over the FTC and other regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.On a subsequent conference call with reporters, Bedoya noted that the FTC was engaged in cases involving tech giants and drug companies and predicted that the move will help powerful corporations while meaning higher prices for consumers.“Who does this attempt to remove us help?” Bedoya asked. “Who it helps is billionaires. And I think it opens the door for corruption and for (a) law enforcement apparatus controlled, not by the law, but by money.”Slaughter said on the same call that she and Bedoya were informed at the end of the day about Trump’s action and that no specific reason was given for the dismissals.“We are not going to go,” Slaughter said. “And we certainly are not going to go quietly.”She added, “Markets should be worried.”“This is a sign that the guardrails are coming off the protections for freedom and fairness in our economy,” Slaughter said. “And it is a sign that honest businesses should be worried about corruption permeating markets.”The issue of Trump asserting greater influence is particularly fraught for the Federal Reserve, an institution that has long sought to protect its independence. Economists and financial markets broadly support an independent Fed because they worry a politicized version would be more reluctant to take unpopular steps to fight inflation, such as raise interest rates.Trump has signaled he will let Fed chair Jerome Powell serve out his term, which ends May 2026. Yet he threatened to fire Powell in 2018 when Powell raised interest rates, a move that can often slow growth.The dismissals of Bedoya and Slaughter follow the Trump administration removing several years worth of online “business guidance” blogs published by the FTC under the Biden administration. According to various snapshots from the Internet Archive, more than 350 blog posts published on the agency’s website were taken down as of Tuesday.The removed blog posts covered a wide range of information, from steps the FTC was taking to prevent harms of AI-enabled voice cloning to an explanation of its lawsuit against Amazon’s Prime subscription program. Blog posts published between 2010 and 2017, under Obama, are still up on the agency’s website.Nidhi Hegde, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, an advocacy group that opposes monopolistic practices, said Bedoya and Slaughter’s dismissals were “illegal and void.”“Independent agencies like the FTC exist to enforce the law as written by Congress and protect the public interest,” Hegde said in a statement. “Not to be gutted at the whim of a president.”Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the only Democrat on both the Judiciary and Commerce committees, called the dismals “a blatantly illegal act.”“It is another unconstitutional power grab. I’m glad you’re suing,” Klobuchar said on the conference call with Bedoya and Slaughter. “In the end, I strongly believe that you will win and you will be reinstated as commissioners.” Associated Press writer Haleluya Hadero in South Bend, Indiana, contributed to this report. Will Weissert and Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Early in their leadership journey, many leaders believe they need to have all the answers and be experts in every aspect of their teams work. They assume that credibility comes from knowing every detail, every strategy, and every technical nuance. However, the most effective leaders soon realize that leadership isnt about having all the answersits about knowing enough to ask the right questions, spot key trends, and guide their teams toward success. Rather than micromanaging or dictating processes, strong leaders focus on creating clarity through shared goals and measurable outcomes. By setting clear performance metrics, they establish a common language with their teamsone that ensures alignment, fosters trust, and allows experts to do what they do best. This approach empowers teams to take ownership of their expertise while enabling leaders to maintain strategic oversight without unnecessary interference. Ultimately, leadership isnt about proving intelligence or controlits about fostering an environment where knowledge thrives, collaboration is seamless, and results speak for themselves. Establish Clear Metrics As a leader, I’ve learned that I don’t need to be the expert in every area my team works in, but I believe knowing enough to be dangerous is critical. This means understanding the core concepts, being able to ask sharp questions, and spotting potential red flags when performance or processes seem off. I see my role not as the person with all the answers, but as someone who can guide the team to ask the right questions and evaluate results critically. One specific strategy I actively follow to foster collaboration and mutual respect, especially when my team members have deeper expertise than I do, is establishing clear performance checklists and standardized metrics that we all align on upfront. These metrics have become our common language. This approach ensures that my team can apply their knowledge and creative ideas while I focus on ensuring we’re all steering toward the same outcomes. For example, I don’t try to dictate every ad copy or keyword with my PPC team. I know they have far more hands-on expertise than I do. What I focus on instead are the critical numbers: cost per lead, conversion rates, search query analysis, and quality scores. These metrics tell me whether campaigns are moving in the right direction or if we need to step back and reevaluate. This allows me to ask the right performance-based questions without interfering in their technical process, reinforcing their confidence and autonomy. This balance of freedom with accountability has helped me create a culture where my team members feel respected for their expertise and understand that outcomes matter. What I’ve also noticed is that this mutual respect encourages better communication. When I respect their deep technical knowledge, they’re more open to educating me about emerging trends or evolving challenges in their domain. At the same time, because I stay focused on the bigger picture, they appreciate my strategic insights that might otherwise get lost in day-to-day execution. Ultimately, I believe that a leader’s role is to create a framework where expertise thrives, not to compete with it. By respecting my team’s knowledge and adding value through clear direction and outcome monitoring, I’ve fostered collaboration, innovation, and a healthy sense of shared ownership across projects. Sangeeta Kumar, vice president, marketing, Healthcare DMS Facilitate Knowledge Sharing In my opinion, a good leader will be happy when their team members have more expertise in certain areas. It means they’ve hired well. The key is to create an environment where that expertise is shared and valued, not feared. One specific strategy I use is to regularly set up “knowledge-sharing sessions.” We make it clear that everyone, including myself, is there to learn. The goal is to encourage questions and create a space where everyone feels comfortable contributing. This approach does a few things: It shows the expert that their skills are appreciated, it spreads that knowledge throughout the team, and it builds respect because everyone sees the value that person brings. Shantanu Pandey, founder and CEO, Tenet Embrace Reverse Mentoring Leaders should embrace the expertise of their team members by shifting from a traditional top-down approach to a collaborative mentorship model, where learning flows both ways. One effective strategy is reverse mentoring, where experienced team members regularly share insights with leadership in structured sessions. Instead of positioning themselves as the ultimate authority, leaders can schedule monthly knowledge exchanges where subject-matter experts within the team lead discussions on industry trends, technical skills, or new strategies. This fosters a culture of shared learning and mutual respect, allowing leaders to stay informed while empowering their teams to take ownership of their expertise. By acknowledging and valuing specialized knowledge, leaders build trust and encourage open collaboration. This approach not only strengthens decision-making but also creates an environment where innovation thrives, as employees feel their insights are heard and acted upon. Chris Giannos, cofounder and CEO, Humaniz Practice Curiosity-Driven Leadership One of the most underrated yet powerful leadership strategies when managing a team with more expertise is Curiosity-Driven Leadership, a mindset that shifts a leader from “knowing” to “learning,” fostering an environment of psychological safety, collaboration, and mutual respect. Instead of feeling pressure to match their expertise, leaders should ask insightful questions, elevate the knowledge of their team, and integrate their expertise into strategic decisions. Here’s how: 1. Ask insightful questions Instead of pretending to know the answer, leaders can ask, “What would you do if you had full autonomy over this decision?” or “What are we not considering here?” This shifts the power dynamic from leader-to-expert to peer-to-peer, making the expert feel valued rather than managed. 2. Elevate expertise publicly A leader’s role is to shine a spotlight on expertise. A simple way to do this is by saying in meetings: “I defer to [Team Member] on this. It’s their area of mastery.” Giving credit and public recognition fosters mutual respect and trust. 3. Integrate expertise into strategic decisions The difference between a leader who listens and a leader who leverages expertise is action. Instead of collecting insights and making an isolated executive decision, involve the expert in shaping the outcome. This might look like saying, “Based on your recommendtions, how do you think we should implement this?” Leaders who embrace curiosity over control gain the trust of their team, create an environment where expertise flourishes, and ultimately make better, more informed decisions. When leaders stop trying to be the smartest person in the room and instead become the most curious, they unlock the full potential of their team. Manuel Schlothauer, founder, HeyManuel.com Co-Create With Your Team Great leaders recognize that expertise isn’t a threatit’s an asset. When managing a team with specialized knowledge, the key is to shift from command and control to coach and empower. One effective strategy is co-creationinvolving experts on your team in decision-making rather than dictating solutions. By facilitating open discussions, asking insightful questions, and positioning themselves as a strategic guide rather than the smartest person in the room, leaders create an environment where innovation thrives. This approach not only fosters mutual respect but also ensures that the best ideas rise to the top, driving both team engagement and business success. A helpful mindset practice for leaders in this situation is intellectual humilityembracing the idea that you don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to ask the right questions. Practicing this means shifting from feeling like you must prove your value to instead recognizing your value as a facilitator of expertise. A simple habit is to start meetings with curiosity-driven prompts, such as, What’s a perspective I might not have considered? or, What are the potential risks or opportunities you see? This keeps the focus on collective problem-solving rather than hierarchical decision-making, reinforcing trust and collaboration. Shannon Garcia-Lewis, chief people officer, Pella Windows & Doors, Rocky Mountain Encourage Your Team To Speak Up As a business leader, I don’t expect to be the expert across all areas of the business, and I embrace the situations when my ideas are challenged. Bringing in new ideas and approaches to solving problems is critical to our business growth. When interviewing candidates for open roles, we look for the personality types that will challenge the norm and don’t hesitate to speak their mind. We believe in this so much we layered it into the foundation of our team culture which we share on our careers page. Specifically, we ask our team to: “Mean itshare opinions honestly and respectfully. Don’t be afraid to pick a side and defend it.” Jared Brown, CEO, Hubstaff Lean Into Team Expertise In order to solve our most pressing and challenging business problems, sometimes we need someone with more expertise than us to carve a path forward. For some leaders, relying on someone with more expertise can lead to stress or worry that they’re losing control, unable to keep up with the latest industry trends, or worse yet, viewed by their colleagues and boss as out-of-their-league. But at the end of the day, we must always keep the big picture in view, and be willing to discover what we “know we don’t know” so we can take questions we have to our teams and lean into each person’s expertise to build trust across the team, and collectively drive our efforts forward to success. I lead an analytics department, and we recently migrated our HR organization’s data to a central hub from multiple SaaS vendors whose built-in reporting features weren’t cutting it. Pretty quickly, I realized I was in over my head. But by sharing with my team the bigger picture of what our collective success would look like when we finished this project, I was able to encourage an ongoing, open dialogue that allowed team members to volunteer new ideas and approaches, which in turn allowed me to ask better questions. By relying on everyone’s expertise and trusting them to drive their areas as they best saw fit, I had more time to clearly define my expectations of the team at each stage, and lean into their expertise to collaboratively craft an even better solution than any single one of us could have come up with alone. This also forced me to better learn the challenges each person faced through the project, and either remove obstacles in their path, or guide their efforts around roadblocks to keep progress moving forward. Knowing and acknowledging our limits as leaders is critical; we can better realize what we know we don’t know, and use those opportunities to build better solutions for our clients, while also building team trust along the way. Casey Meadows, head of talent acquisition analytics, Upstart
Category:
E-Commerce
Cybertrucks set ablaze. Bullets and Molotov cocktails aimed at Tesla showrooms.Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric-car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas. While no injuries have been reported, Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted. In Canada, Tesla was removed from an international auto show over safety concerns.There has been a clear uptick in Tesla attacks since President Donald Trump took office and empowered Musk to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency that is slashing government spending. Experts on domestic extremism say it’s impossible to know yet if the spate of incidents will balloon into a long-term pattern.In Trump’s first term, his properties in New York City, Washington and elsewhere became a natural place for protest. In the early days of his second term, Tesla is filling that role.“Tesla is an easy target,” said Randy Blazak, a sociologist who studies political violence. “They’re rolling down our streets. They have dealerships in our neighborhoods.”Musk critics have organized dozens of peaceful demonstrations at Tesla dealerships and factories across North America and Europe. Some Tesla owners, including a U.S. senator who feuded with Musk, have vowed to sell their vehicles.But the attacks are keeping law enforcement busy.Prosecutors in Colorado charged a woman last month in connection with a string of attacks on Tesla dealerships, including Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building.And federal agents in South Carolina last week arrested a man they say set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit that authorities found writings critical of the government and DOGE in his bedroom and wallet.“The statement made mention of sending a message based on these beliefs,” the agent wrote.A number of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.An Oregon man is facing charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted.Four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot in Seattle earlier this month. On Friday, witnesses reported a man poured gasoline on an unoccupied Tesla Model S and started a fire on a Seattle street.In Las Vegas, several Tesla vehicles were set ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tesla service center where the word “resist” was also painted in red across the building’s front doors. Authorities said at least one person threw Molotov cocktailscrude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquidand fired several rounds from a weapon into the vehicles.“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might thinkthe writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, said at a news conference. “None of those factors are lost on us.” Tesla becomes a target for the left Tesla was once the darling of the left. Helped to viability by a $465 million federal loan during the Obama administration, the company popularized electric vehicles and proved, despite their early reputation, that they didn’t have to be small, stodgy, underpowered and limited in range.More recently, though, Musk has allied himself with the right. He bought the social network Twitter, renamed it X and erased restrictions that had infuriated conservatives. He spent an estimated $250 million to boost Trump’s 2024 Republican campaign, becoming by far his biggest benefactor.Musk continues to run Teslaas well as X and the rocket manufacturer SpaceXwhile also serving as Trump’s adviser.Tesla stock doubled in value in the weeks after Trump’s election but has since shed all those gains.Trump gave a boost to the company when he turned the White House driveway into an electric vehicle showroom. The president promoted the vehicles and said he would purchase an $80,000 Model S, eschewing his fierce past criticism of electric vehicles.Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Musk briefly addressed the vandalism Monday during an appearance on Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast, saying “at least some of it is organized and paid for” by “left-wing organizations in America, funded by left-wing billionaires, essentially.”“This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong,” Musk wrote Tuesday on X, sharing a video of burning Teslas in Las Vegas. “Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks.”The progressive group Indivisible, which published a guide for supporters to organize “Musk Or Us” protests around the country, said in a statement that all of its guidance is publicly available and “it explicitly encourages peaceful protest and condemns any acts of violence or vandalism.”Some Tesla owners have resorted to cheeky bumper stickers to distance themselves from their vehicle’s new stigma and perhaps deter would-be vandals. They say things like “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy” or “I just wanted an electric car. Sorry guys.”Prices for used Cybertrucks, Tesla’s most distinctive product, have dropped nearly 8% since Trump took office, according to CarGurus, which aggregates used car vehicle listings. The market as a whole remained steady over the period. The White House vows a crackdown The White House has thrown its weight behind Musk, the highest-profile member of Trump’s administration and a key donor to committees promoting Trump’s political interests. Trump has said Tesla vandalism amounts to “domestic terror,” and Trump has threatened retribution, warning that those who target the company are “going to go through hell.”Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’d opened an investigation “to see how is this being funded, who is behind this.”“If you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out because we’re coming after you,” Bondi said Friday on Fox Business Network. In a statement Tuesday, she vowed to “continue investigations that impose severe consequences,” including for “those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.”Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, said left-wing political violence tends to target property rather than people. He views the rise of neo-Nazi groups as a bigger security threat at this point.“It’s not the type of act that I would prioritize,&8221; Clarke said. “Not right now compared to all the other threats that are out there.”Theresa Ramsdell is the president of the Tesla Owners of Washington state, a club for Tesla enthusiasts, and she and her husband own three of them.“Hate on Elon and Trump all you wantthat’s fine and dandy, it’s your choice,” she said. “It doesn’t justify ruining somebody’s property, vandalizing it, destroying it, setting it on fire. There’s other ways to get your voice heard that’s more effective.”Someone recently slapped a “no Elon” sticker on the tailgate of her Cybertruck, but she said she doesn’t intend to stop driving her Teslas. Other club members have taken a similar view, she said.“I love my car. It’s the safest car,” Ramsdell said. “I’m not going to let somebody else judge me for the car I drive.” Cooper reported from Phoenix. Jonathan J. Cooper and Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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