Echoing Richard Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre purge during Watergate, President Donald Trump this week moved to fire both Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, which had been investigating some of Trump’s biggest corporate boosters. 

These weren’t routine pink slips given during an administration turnover. Trump fired Senate-confirmed commissioners at an agency that Congress — by law — deliberately created to be independent from the executive branch’s control. 

Hours after receiving Trump’s termination letter, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya spoke with Lever Time’s David Sirota about why this is a battle over not just one federal agency, but over whether the presidency will end up becoming a corrupt monarchy — one that will benefit only those who kiss the king’s ring. Bedoya is now taking Trump to court in a battle that he says is barreling toward the Supreme Court.