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Robert Primus, one of two Democratic board members of an independent federal regulatory agency that's considering a between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroad companies, has been fired, the White House and Primus said Thursday.
In a on LinkedIn Aug. 27, Primus wrote that he received an email from the White House "purporting" to fire him from the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The brief email from the White House, reviewed by TheNews, terminated Primus from his position without reason.
"My understanding was the reasoning they gave was that I was not, you know, I was not- somehow was against their America First efforts," Primus told TheNews. "And my answer is, I'm hard-pressed to find that I was. I mean, I've been pro-growth since I got to the board. I had, I gave a major speech about growth and economic growth in January."
Primus was first nominated by President Trump to the STB in 2020 and renominated by former President Joe Biden to serve a second term in 2022 before becoming chairman last year. The Surface Transportation Board oversees regulation of freight rail, and is authorized to have five members, who are confirmed by the Senate. They are appointed to five-year terms.
In January, Mr. Trump designated Patrick Fuchs as the new chairman of the board. With Primus' departure, there are now only three members on the board.
In a statement to TheNews, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that "Robert Primus did not align with the President's America First agenda, and was terminated from his position by the White House. The Administration intends to nominate new, more qualified members to the Surface Transportation Board in short order."
In response to the White House's statement, Primus said: "Even in the comment that they put out today about supporting the president's-, that's not- they gave no proof that I didn't support it." He said that under the STB statutes, "there has to be cause for my termination. Specific cause whether it was I didn't do my job, whether it was malfeasance. Whatever it is, that has to be raised."
Primus' termination was first by The Wall Street Journal.
In Primus' LinkedIn post, he called the firing "deeply troubling and legally invalid." He also wrote that "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 said he plans to continue performing his duties as a board member and says he hasn't turned in his laptop or ID. He also said he's actively pursuing legal options to push back against his termination.
Some of Primus' posts on the social media platform have shown him at odds with the administration. Most recently, he wrote in a post two weeks ago that he doesn't agree with the president's decision to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
In 2023, he was the lone board member to reject the approved Canada Pacific-Kansas City Southern railway companies merger.
Primus admitted that his decision and voiced opinions on some of the administration's decisions could have been a factor in his termination.
"Maybe people did not like the fact that, you know, I actually look at mergers objectively," Primus said of his decision in the 2023 merger. "To me, it signals my independence, doesn't show that I'm against them. It's just that I'm independent, that I don't have to go lockstep with Democrats or Republicans."
While Mr. Trump has not signaled direct support for the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, he repeatedly of the railroad industry in his first term.
The two companies intend to submit a merger application to STB on or before Jan. 29, 2026. The agency did not respond to a request for comment on Primus' termination.
