President Donald Trump has gone on a firing spree since taking office in January, in part to reduce the size and inefficiency of the federal workforce but also to ensure that federal employees are aligned with, or at least not overtly opposed to, his policy agenda.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Trump had fired two of the three board members for the National Credit Union Administration, an ostensibly independent watchdog agency that oversees the nation's credit unions, The Hill reported.

The two fired NCUA board members are both Democrats, and though no official explanation was given for their terminations, it is presumably because they didn't align with Trump's policy vision, and the White House quickly defended the move as well within the president's rights and prerogative.

Fired board members speak out

Reuters reported on Wednesday that former NCUA board members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka both announced separately that they'd been fired from their Senate-confirmed positions by President Trump, leaving the oversight board with just one member, Republican Chairman Kyle Hauptman.

Otsuka revealed in a statement that she was terminated effective immediately by email on Thursday evening, and denounced the firing as supposedly being "yet another attempt to undermine the rule of law and blatantly ignore Congress and our democratic values."

Harper, in a LinkedIn post that assailed his termination as "just plain wrong," wrote in his statement, "The decision of the White House to fire me before the completion of my term is wrong."

"It violates the bipartisan statutory framework adopted by Congress to protect credit union members and their deposits. The Trump Administration’s attack also undermines the independence, balance, and important work of the NCUA," he asserted. "If a President can fire an NCUA Board member at any time, how will we maintain public trust in our nation’s financial services regulatory system?"

"Bipartisanship leads to better and measured policymaking," Harper added. "This ill-conceived and politically motivated decision to fire me before the end of my term upsets that important regulatory balance and will harm consumers. Today is a sad day for our country and the credit union system."

Trump "reserves the right to fire anyone he wants"

Reuters noted that the firing of the two NCUA board members is just the latest move by President Trump to terminate certain officials at various federal regulatory agencies that are purportedly independent yet remain as part of the executive branch.

Critics have accused Trump of attempting to unduly influence and manipulate said oversight agencies and boards, and some of those who've been fired have filed lawsuits challenging his authority to do so.

However, the White House has adamantly insisted that the president has the power to terminate the employment of any federal worker, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the outlet, "President Trump is the chief executive of the executive branch and reserves the right to fire anyone he wants."

Nominated and confirmed

Interestingly enough, Harper is a Democrat who was appointed to the NCUA board by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2019, after which he was named chairman of the board by former President Joe Biden in 2021, and was subsequently renominated and reconfirmed to another term in 2022 that wouldn't expire until 2027.

As for Otsuka, she was nominated to the board by President Biden in 2023 and was confirmed by the Senate that same year to a term that was set to run through 2029.

The final remaining NCUA board member, Kyle Hauptman, was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2020, and he was immediately designated to serve as chair of the board on the first day of Trump's second term.