Last Updated on January 31, 2025
Phyllis Fong, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, had to be escorted out of her DC office by security agents on Monday when she refused to comply with her dismissal by the Trump administration.
Despite being terminated by the White House on Friday, the 22-year veteran of the department informed her colleagues that she planned to continue working in her role, arguing that the administration had not followed the necessary procedures.
In an email to her colleagues on Saturday, Fong stated, “These termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.”
Trump fired 16 other federal watchdogs on Friday including Wong and has yet to replace the vacant positions.
Fong proceeded with business as usual and returned to her office on Monday morning prompting USDA security agents employed to walk her out.
Fong declined to comment after she was forced to leave the building.
The USDA inspector general is tasked with overseeing investigations into food safety, animal welfare violations, and financial audits within the department. Fong’s office was involved in an ongoing investigation into Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink, which the agency launched in 2022.
The office has also investigated animal abuse at dog breeders for research labs and the listeria outbreak at Boar’s Head, among other issues.
Trump defended his dismissal of the 17 federal watchdogs while speaking aboard Air Force One, calling the move “a very common thing to do.”
“I don’t know them, but some people thought some were unfair, some were not doing their job. It’s a very standard thing to do, very much like the U.S. attorneys,” the commander-in-chief told reporters while traveling to Florida. “They’re not my people.”
“I don’t know anybody that would do that. But we’ll put people in there that will be very good,” he continued.
Inspectors general of nearly every Cabinet-level agency, including IGs of the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Treasury and Agriculture, received notice late Friday night from White House personnel director Sergio Gor that their time was up.
“Those rogue, partisan bureaucrats… have been relieved of their duties in order to make room for qualified individuals who will uphold the rule of law and protect democracy,” a White House spokesperson told reporters.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency warned in a letter to the White House on Friday that the dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires the president to give both houses of Congress cause for dismissal and 30-day advance notice.
