Robert Primus, a well-known and respected proponent of strict railroad regulation, was fired from the STB. The confirmation of the shock firing came from the Trump administration, in a terse email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office. This decision comes on the heels of a wave of high-profile firings in the administration. Recent days have seen dramatic personnel shifts.
Primus, originally from New Jersey, got the surprise news while doing his work as a conductor with Amtrak. Just a week earlier, he’d been celebrating the first arrivals of the latest iteration of Amtrak’s flagship Acela trains. The day he was fired, Primus had just returned from a work trip to New York. He went home one day to find his work cell phone disabled and his job abruptly ended.
“I was discharging my duties yesterday with Amtrak,” Primus stated, emphasizing the shock he felt upon learning about his termination. He checked his personal phone for updates, where he found the email that “basically said … that my position was terminated.”
The recent firings don’t stop there, as this week Fire Primus was joined by Lisa Cook and Susan Monarez being dismissed this week. Cook has subsequently sued Trump in federal court over her firing. Monarez leads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. This key role highlights the administration’s far reaching changes affecting powerful positions.
In a statement, Primus said he was shocked to have been blindsided by the decision. He remarked, “I tell people, I’m from Jersey and Jersey folks know how to fight,” suggesting that he is prepared to confront this challenge head-on.
Even this Trump administration’s pattern of frequent, high-profile dismissals raised eyebrows. Few observers are looking at what this might mean for governance and regulatory oversight — especially in vital sectors such as transportation and public health.