The White House late Wednesday moved to terminate Robert E. Primus, a board member of the federal regulator responsible for approving railroad mergers, including one currently under review between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
Mr. Primus, a Democrat who was nominated for the role by President Trump in 2020, said in an interview that his firing from the Surface Transportation Board came “completely out of the blue.” He said he arrived home from an Amtrak event after 5 p.m. on Wednesday to discover that his work phone was locked.
While reading through his personal emails, he saw one from the White House that said his position had been “terminated, effective immediately.” Mr. Primus shared a copy of the email with The New York Times. No explanation or cause was given in the email.
By Thursday, his name and biography had been removed from the S.T.B. website’s list of current board members. Mr. Primus said he would continue his work, and explore legal options if he were prevented from doing so.
“As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t received cause for the termination, so I don’t believe it to be valid,” Mr. Primus said. “It’s illegal. The president cannot remove me arbitrarily, there has to be a reason, there has to be cause.”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in statement, “Robert Primus did not align with the President’s America First agenda, and was terminated from his position by the White House.” He added, “The Administration intends to nominate new, more qualified members to the Surface Transportation Board in short order.”
Before joining the board, Mr. Primus served as a senior adviser to Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, and then as senior adviser and chief of staff to Representative Tony Cárdenas, a California Democrat. In the 1990s, he worked for four years at a lobbying firm, where he advised clients on transportation and national security matters. In 1999, he became the legislative director to former Massachusetts Representative Michael Capuano, a Democrat, eventually becoming his chief of staff.
The S.TB. is the federal agency that oversees freight rail and some other forms of transportation and is charged with reviewing the impact of rail mergers. In 2023, Mr. Primus was the dissenting vote in the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
Last month, Union Pacific said it had reached an agreement to buy Norfolk Southern for $85 billion. If the deal goes through, the network would span about 50,000 miles across 43 states and create the nation’s first coast-to-coast rail network. The deal needs approval from the S.T.B. board.
Mr. Primus would not comment on his position on the pending rail merger, saying he still considers himself a member of the board. He noted, however, that, “you have to question, in terms of growth, in terms of what is needed for our national freight network and our supply chain, does that require further consolidation within the network?”
He said he did not know whether he was removed for his views on consolidation in the rail industry.
“Was I let go because of my thoughts on that?” he asked, referring to his thoughts on growth. The reason for his termination was a matter of speculation, he said, because he was never given a cause. “Was it because I’m a Black male at the board? I was the first Black chairman.”
In May 2024, President Joe Biden appointed Mr. Primus as the S.T.B. board chair. He was replaced as board chair after Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January, but he remained on the board as a member.
“The decision they’re making would have an adverse impact on the board and our freight rail network and on the supply chain,” Mr. Primus said of his removal. “To take an agency that has proven itself impartial and to be apolitical, and now make it political, I think threatens that integrity we’ve worked very hard at.”
The removal of Mr. Primus comes days after President Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a governor of the Federal Reserve Board. Ms. Cook, the first Black woman to serve as Fed governor, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Trump on Thursday, arguing that she should retain her job because the White House had no authority to order the dismissal.
Emmett Lindner is a business reporter for The Times.
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