President Trump continued to make waves just over a week into his presidency with his decision earlier this week to fire the chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Gwynne Wilcox. This unprecedented decision came alongside Trump’s firing of NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.

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.

In another late-night firing, President Trump removed Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board—a move she called "unprecedented and illegal." Because it already had vacancies, the board now lacks a quorum and cannot issue decisions.