Cotton Defends Trump’s Firing of IGs

Jeremy Frankel | January 27, 2025 4:45 PM

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) defended President Trump's decision to fire 18 inspectors general this week.

Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that even though critics argued what Trump did was illegal since he did not notify Congress first, the Supreme Court has already ruled in Trump’s favor on the issue of firing federal employees.

“Time and time again, the Supreme Court has said that Congress can’t impose restrictions on the president’s power to remove officers,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday.”

“In President Trump’s first term, he removed the Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau despite limitations on the President’s constitutional power to remove officers, that was litigated at the Supreme Court and the president won," he added.

“So ultimately, these inspectors general serve at the pleasure of the president. He wants new people in there. He wants people who focused on getting out waste and fraud and abuse and reforming these agencies, he has a right to have to get in there who he wants,” Cotton continued.

Cotton added that he believes that Trump will refill those inspector general spots.

“[W]hen he says he wants to fill those offices, maybe he won’t fill them immediately, because there’s an entire administration to staff, and he may have other priorities, but I think the president’s inherent power to remove officers will be upheld if it’s challenged in court, as it has been time and again for Democratic and Republican Presidents alike," Cotton said.