His unlawful purge of the National Labor Relations Board on Monday serves all three goals at once. With these firings, Trump has paralyzed the board, asserted control over its agenda, and engineered a legal showdown over the scope of his constitutional authority.

The removal of the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel had been expected. But the firing of a Democratic member stops it from protecting workers’ rights, for now.

It’s been a little more than a week since Inauguration Day, but the seismic shifts of presidential change in Washington, D.C. continue, now extending to and impacting the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board).

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has fired two Democratic officials at the National Labor Relations Board, a major shakeup that will bring hundreds of cases accusing companies of unlawful labor practices to a standstill and paves the way for Republican control of the agency.

The dismissals target two independent agencies that oversee swaths of U.S. workers, employers and labor unions.

President Trump fired two Democratic EEOC commissioners and an NLRB board member, hobbling two independent agencies that are tasked with enforcing worker protections.

Some agency employees who President Donald Trump terminated from their leadership roles Monday night are now “considering legal options.”