The head of the FEC is defying Trump’s attempt to fire her

“There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it,” Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the FEC, said of President Donald Trump’s attempt to remove her from the Federal Election Commission.

Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, said President Donald Trump was attempting to remove her from the agency.

“Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of FEC,” Weintraub wrote Thursday evening in an X post, which came attached with a dismissal letter signed by Trump.

“There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it,” Weintraub added.

Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of @FEC. There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon. pic.twitter.com/7voecN2vpj

— Ellen L. Weintraub (@ellenlweintraub.bsky.social) (@EllenLWeintraub) February 6, 2025

According to Weintraub’s post, Trump’s letter was dated January 31. Weintraub has served as a commissioner of the agency since 2002. The FEC administers and oversees compliance with federal election laws.

While Weintraub’s term as commissioner expired in April 2007, she has continued to serve on the FEC and chaired it in 2003, 2013, and 2019. The chair position rotates yearly, and in December, Weintraub was elected as chair for the fourth time.

According to federal law, commissioners of the FEC are appointed to six-year terms. Commissioners can remain at the FEC past their term’s expiration date until a replacement is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

“I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon,” Weintraub wrote in her post on Thursday.

When contacted for comment, Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary at the White House, said: “Our message to Ellen Weintraub is simple: you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. The President has made a decision on who he’d like to chair the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and it’s not her. Grandstanding over this decision won’t change the President’s mind.”

The FEC’s press office declined to comment on Weintraub’s post.

Weintraub told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday that she was “not really surprised” by Trump’s attempt to dismiss her.

“There have been dozens of complaints filed against the president,” Weintraub told the Times.

“I have pointed that out. I’ve written about this. So I’m not really surprised that I am on their radar,” she added.

In 2020, Weintraub criticized Trump after he said that the expansion of mail-in voting would lead to widespread voter fraud.

“Such falsehoods are not mere words. These falsehoods may well undermine the American people’s faith in our democracy,” Weintraub wrote in a 66-post thread on X in May 2020.

“True leaders speak truth,” she added.

Correction: February 7, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated when Ellen Weintraub was elected FEC chair for the fourth time. The election was in December, not this year.