President Donald Trump’s latest bid to stamp his name on government work is drawing a sharp rebuke from the agency’s own veterans.
Millions of Americans receiving settlement checks from Amazon are finding the payments credited to “President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission,” a move two former FTC officials told Politico on Wednesday is without precedent. The phrase appears three times in a notice accompanying the checks, which stem from a $2.5 billion settlement the company agreed to in 2025 over allegations it tricked customers into Prime subscriptions.
Stephen Calkins, a Wayne State University law professor who served as FTC general counsel from 1995 to 1997, said he knew of no earlier case where a president’s name appeared in a consumer refund communication.
“Making such a claim is unseemly and unfortunate,” Calkins told Politico. “I regret very much that this once-proud independent agency is now being used to promote the Trump brand.”
Bill Kovacic, who led the FTC under President George W. Bush, said the attribution could hurt how the agency is seen down the road.
“In one sense, it’s trivial, and who cares? On the other hand, it diminishes the aura of professionalism that is useful to the agency when it performs traditional law enforcement functions,” he said.
Kovacic added that linking the FTC to the White House is a new norm under Trump. The agency operated largely independently until the Supreme Court broadened presidential authority over such bodies this summer, and it now routinely calls itself the “Trump-Vance FTC” in public statements.
The FTC defended the wording.
“It is settled law that President Trump is the leader of the executive branch and his FTC is responsible for this historic settlement,” a spokesperson said.
Politico’s review of FTC refunds under Trump and former President Joe Biden found that the Amazon payouts are the only ones that credit a president. Critics also point out that the Biden administration brought the underlying lawsuit in 2023, accusing Amazon of steering users into Prime and making cancellation difficult.
Amazon did not respond to Politico’s request for comment.
Payouts in the latest round of checks mailed reach up to $200, Politico noted.
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