Judge says Trump can’t fire workers like a king

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A federal judge delivered a stern rebuke to former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive power while ordering the reinstatement of a dismissed National Labor Relations Board member, emphasizing that presidential authority in the United States is not monarchical.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a 36-page ruling in favor of Gwynne Wilcox, who challenged her termination in February, arguing that her dismissal was part of a series of unlawful firings that could serve as a precedent for defining presidential authority limits.

“An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” wrote Howell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

Y'all don't understand, Judge Beryl Howell has been a thorn in Trumps side for so long, it's seriously time to remove this individual.

At this point, their rulings are designed to impeded Trump and nothing more. There is no rule of law here.

— Arnie (@ArnulfoCarden17) March 6, 2025

The judge’s decision directly addressed Trump’s social media activity, specifically referencing a February 19 Truth Social post where he proclaimed “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” This message was subsequently shared by the White House on various platforms, accompanied by an illustration depicting Trump wearing a crown on a magazine cover resembling Time magazine.

“A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell stated in her ruling.

The judge criticized Trump’s interpretation of presidential powers, noting that his administration appears to be testing the boundaries of executive authority until courts intervene. “The President seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme,” she wrote.

BIG NEWS: U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found Trump did not have the authority to remove Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. 🧵with 🔗.

— UWUA National (@The_UWUA) March 7, 2025

Addressing the “unitary executive” theory, Howell emphasized that the Constitution’s framers deliberately established a system preventing any single branch from wielding absolute power. “To start, the [Constitution’s] Framers made clear that no one in our system of government was meant to be king — the President included — and not just in name only,” she wrote, adding that the structure of the Constitution “was designed to ensure no one branch of government had absolute power.”

The judge determined that Trump’s dismissal of Wilcox violated legal standards, declaring “The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law.”