A member of the U.S. rail regulatory board said he discovered that he had been fired by the Trump administration after returning home from an Amtrak event to unveil new high-speed Acela trains .

"I was just as surprised as anyone else," former Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus told CNBC's Eamon Javers on Thursday in his first broadcast interview since being removed.

Primus said he will fight his ouster.

"I tell people, I'm from Jersey and Jersey folks know how to fight," said Primus, a Democrat whom President Donald Trump nominated to the STB in 2020 during his first White House term.

The shake-up, which was condemned by two labor unions representing rail workers, is the latest in a recent series of high-profile firings by the Trump administration.

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