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Outlet profile

Federal Trade Commission

U.S. federal government agency (independent regulator, now under presidential control)

Owned byOwned by the U.S. federal government. It is an executive-branch regulatory agency created by Congress in 1914, not a news outlet. It is run by a commission whose members the President appoints with Senate confirmation. As of 2026 only two Republican commissioners remain: Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Mark Meador.
FundingTaxpayer appropriations from Congress, plus offsetting collections from fees such as merger-filing (Hart-Scott-Rodino) fees. In fiscal 2025, total budget authority was about $425.7 million, including about $133.7 million in general-fund appropriations and $292 million in offsetting collections. The FY2026 appropriation was reported at about $388.7 million, down about 8.7%.
On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

Congress created the FTC in September 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act, mainly to stop unfair methods of competition and curb monopolies. Its mandate later expanded to consumer protection, including deceptive advertising, data privacy and fraud. For about 90 years it was treated as an independent, bipartisan body, with commissioners protected from removal except for cause, a protection upheld in the 1935 case Humphrey's Executor v. United States. In 2025 President Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Bedoya resigned and dropped his suit, while Slaughter kept fighting. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that the for-cause removal protection is unconstitutional, overruling Humphrey's Executor. Under Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the agency has continued major antitrust and consumer-protection cases, including actions against large technology and retail firms. Supporters say the ruling restores accountability to an elected President. Critics say it ends the agency's bipartisan independence and exposes its enforcement choices to political pressure. Its own communications are official, promote agency actions, and are not independent journalism.

Sources

  1. Supreme Court lets presidents fire independent regulators, rules for Trump in FTC case (CNBC)
  2. Supreme Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power (SCOTUSblog)
  3. Trump v. Slaughter (Wikipedia)
  4. Federal Trade Commission (Wikipedia)
  5. FTC Agency Financial Report FY 2025
  6. FTC Appropriation and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) History

Profile compiled 2026-11-02; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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