Ben Shapiro: “These inspectors general tend to be Democratic plants very often”

Shapiro: “It is probably unconstitutional for Congress to appoint inspectors general inside the executive branch that the president cannot fire”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the January 27, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show

BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): One thing that President Trump knows this time that he didn't last time is that it is very important for him to clear out the obstacles to his ability to actually govern. So there's a big controversy that broke out over the weekend because President Trump fired something like 17 inspectors general. He's supposedly in violation of the law. I'm a explain that in a moment. 

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Now why exactly did they do this? The answer is because the Trump administration in the first go round was hamstrung by independent inspectors general who were put in place by Congress basically in order to hamstring the Trump administration. I personally know many members of Trump administration number one who are nearly bankrupted because of the legal costs they had to undergo thanks to, for example, the Robert Mueller report. The number of hours that were dedicated to that stupid foray into mythical idiocy was exorbitant. These inspector generals do not work for Congress. They work for the executive branch. It is probably unconstitutional for Congress to appoint inspectors general inside the executive branch that the president cannot fire. The executive branch is its own branch of government. It does not work for the legislature. That is not how this works. The President of the United States does not — Congress has its own subpoena power. The Congress has its own investigatory power. The Congress has its own ability to dig into what's going on in the executive branch. That's its oversight power. 

Appointing independent inspectors general with a wide-ranging ability to dig and dig and dig and dig, not for the crime, but for the man is a massive problem, and President Trump knows that. He saw it during his first administration. Democrats, of course, are very upset about all of this. They would not be nearly as upset if these inspectors general had spent their time deep-stating Joe Biden during the last administration. They didn't because these inspectors general tend to be Democratic plants very often.

Even some Republican legislators noted that there was no notice to Congress as required by law before firing them:

Republicans joined in with the criticism. Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, 91, a staunch Trump ally, said in a statement obtained by CNN that Congress wasn’t notified in advance of the firings in adherence to the law.

“There may be good reason the IGs were fired,” Grassley noted Saturday. “We need to know that if so. I’d like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.”

Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said, “What I do understand is that it is relatively unprecedented in that there was no notice.”

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins noted that Trump’s firings didn’t adhere to his stated goal of fighting corruption.

“I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. So this leaves a gap in what I know is a priority for President Trump,” she told reporters, according to CNN.