The problem with Donald Trump’s recent firing of six members of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board isn’t who he decided to fire — it’s the board’s very existence as a tool of colonial rule over Puerto Rico.
Earlier this month, Andrew G. Biggs, Arthur J. Gonzalez, and Betty A. Rosa, three members of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), returned to their posts after a federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump likely violated the law when he abruptly dismissed six FOMB members in early August. In a thirty-four-page decision, Judge María Antongiorgi-Jordán concluded that the president’s actions breached the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act of 2016 (PROMESA) requirement that members can only be removed “for cause.