President Donald Trump fired multiple inspectors general Friday night, dealing a lightning strike to independent oversight of his administration and attracting fierce backlash from Democrats on Capitol Hill and support from some Republicans.
The president dismissed at least a dozen IGs, many of whom he appointed during his first term, including watchdogs at EPA and the Energy and Interior departments. Some are planning to fight their removal.
“President Trump fired me last night, along with a number of other Inspectors General,” Mark Lee Greenblatt, Interior’s watchdog, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I’m just trying to process this right now. It’s all just so surreal.”
Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday that firing IGs was a “very common thing to do.” He added, “Some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing the job.”
Under the law, the White House must give Congress advance notice and an explanation for removing an inspector general. In this case, the White House did not appear to do that.
“There may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so,” said Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has for decades worked to defend agency watchdogs.
“I’d like further explanation from President Trump,” Grassley said. “Regardless, the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.”
The statement from Grassley — who has become a vocal Trump defender — was muted compared with comments last year, when he urged the incoming president not to fire IGs.
“I guess it’s the case of whether he believes in congressional oversight, because I work closely with all the inspector generals and I think I’ve got a good reputation for defending them. And I intend to defend them,” Grassley told POLITICO.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on CNN said Trump should have notified Congress before the dismissals. “But the question is, is it OK for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yeah. He won the election. What do you expect him to do? Just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected?”
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told Fox News about the IGs: “Some of them deserve to be fired. And the president is going to make wise decisions on those.” Department of Energy watchdog Teri Donaldson, among those fired, was once a Barrasso aide.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on social media, incorrectly, “These are Biden-appointed officials.” He went on to say, “There’s nothing novel about replacing them with Trump appointees.”
House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has not commented on the matter. His social media has been active against former President Joe Biden’s pardons.
While Democrats have been careful not to question everything the new president does, they came out in force against the IG firings.
House ranking members on Saturday sent a letter to the president to express their “grave concern” and requested he rescind the terminations.
“Your actions violate the law, attack our democracy, and undermine the safety of the American people,” said the letter, led by Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).
“Firing inspectors general without due cause is antithetical to good government, undermines the proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and degrades the federal government’s ability to function effectively and efficiently,” the letter added.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called the developments “alarming.”
“Now more than ever the responsibility will fall to Congress to conduct oversight and ensure these agencies are working for the American people, not special interests,” she said.
IGs fight back
At least some inspectors general are vowing to fight their dismissal. Fired State Department IG Cardell Richardson told staff he would still show up at work, according to POLITICO.
Small Business Administration watchdog Hannibal “Mike” Ware, chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, challenged Sergio Gor, head of the White House personnel office, in a letter obtained by POLITICO.
“I recommend that you reach out to White House Counsel to discuss your intended course of action,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General.”
Trump’s campaign website said he wanted to make every IG’s office “independent” so “they do not become protectors of the deep state.” That’s why many people wondered whether Trump would repeat his 2020 mass firings of agency watchdogs.
Asked if he had reason to believe Trump would ask the inspectors general to resign, Greenblatt told POLITICO’s E&E News last month, “Look, President-elect Trump said recently that he believes in having independent IGs, and I take him at his word.”
Greenblatt, Donaldson and EPA watchdog Sean O’Donnell all date back to the first Trump administration.
In 2021, Trump thanked Greenblatt for his office’s report on claims the president pushed protesters out of Lafayette Park, just outside the White House, before Trump entered the grounds.
“Completely and Totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park!” Trump said at the time.
But Greenblatt’s office has been critical of the past Trump administration’s conduct, zeroing in on ethics troubles. That included a stinging report on former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
In a statement to E&E News, Greenblatt said he did not plan to show up for work Monday. “I don’t want to create a security incident, so I do not plan on going to my office.”
Donaldson’s last report was a withering rebuke of then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s 2023 electric vehicle road trip, a popular target for Republican lawmakers. The watchdog office found DOE staffers on the trip had exceeded the government’s rates for lodging and travel.
In addition, Donaldson made waves when she called on the department’s Loan Programs Office to suspend issuing loans or loan guarantees over potential conflicts of interest. She also said the Democrats’ climate and green energy spending would be hard to police. Donaldson declined to comment when contacted for this story.
Some Democrats considered the EPA inspector general too close to Trump and his staff. But O’Donnell often butted heads with Trump appointees at EPA.
In 2020, then-Administrator Andrew Wheeler called on the inspector general to retract a report about the agency failing to inform the public of danger from ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing chemical.
“Most importantly, I got to spend nearly five years leading the most amazing collection of oversight professionals in the environmental space,” O’Donnell said in a LinkedIn post this weekend.
Reporters Kelsey Brugger and Timothy Cama contributed.
This story also appears in Energywire and Climatewire.
