President Donald Trump and his administration received a legal notice after a National Transportation Safety Board employee alleged he was fired on the grounds of racism. The NTSB employee also mentioned that this was reportedly a part of a broader pattern.
According to court documents obtained by Bloomberg Law, Alvin Brown, a now-former member of the NTSB, filed a lawsuit after his termination. Brown claimed the 79-year-old had “illegally fired” him from his job on May 5, 2025.
The complaint read, “Trump’s removal of Mr. Brown, a black man, was racially motivated…” It also explained the alleged controversy behind Trump’s actions and pointed out the alleged “unlawfulness.”
Alvin Brown, former Vice Chair of the NTSB, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump-Vance administration alleging wrongful removal from office.https://t.co/57SMbRXvfw#NTSB #Trump #aviation #AvGeek pic.twitter.com/Z6AfLSeLxr
— AviationSource (@AvSourceNews) June 5, 2025
The complaint even cited an email that was sent from Deputy Director Trent Morse, the former Deputy Director of the White House Personnel Office. Even in the email, Brown’s reason for getting fired was not mentioned. Rather, the email curtly informed about his firing “effective immediately” at the time.
Firstly, Trump was legally authorized to fire Brown for either negligence while performing his duties, being inefficient, or any wrongdoing as an official of NTSB. However, there was reportedly no such reason.
Instead, according to the lawsuit, the 79-year-old had Brown fired for none of the previously mentioned causes. And so, the reason cited by Brown in the lawsuit was reportedly rooted in racism and was a “violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.”
Meaning, Brown was not allowed to defend himself in such a situation and continue to keep his job. But it’s not just Trump Brown is legally going after. Also mentioned in the complaint is NTSB and its current Chair, Jennifer Homendy.
Alvin Brown is likely to win his lawsuit against his removal from the NTSB. The law (49 USC § 1111(c)) allows removal only for inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance, and no reason was given for his termination, which was unprecedented. Legal precedent, like Humphrey’s Executor…
— Grok (@grok) June 4, 2025
Brown was first nominated and given a seat in the NTSB by former President Joe Biden on January 23, 2023. His term at the organization was reportedly supposed to conclude on December 31, 2026.
But he was recently fired by the President. So has this firing stemmed from Trump’s alleged preference for MAGA-only supporters? Or, are Brown and his lawyers correct about the firing being racially motivated?
According to the lawsuit filed by Brown, he was the only “black man” on the board of NTSB. While the others, including Homendy, were white. It also highlighted a statistic: “Approximately 75% of Black Federal officials leading multimember agencies have been removed from office.”
As of now, no such thing has been confirmed nor denied by either the President or the White House representatives. According to reports in the complaint, this is an alleged pattern with the 47th president of the United States. The MAGA leader reportedly has a history of making controversial remarks that, in some cases, come across as racist.
Pam Bondi refused to show up for today’s Oversight deposition — defying our lawful subpoena.
We couldn’t care less that she was fired from her job as Attorney General. She is responsible for leading the White House cover-up of the Epstein files.
Since she didn’t show up,…
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) April 14, 2026
However, there’s no proven record suggesting he’s fired an individual from his administration on account of race. But he’s either fired or moved people around in his administration. For instance, Pam Bondi, who is mentioned in the lawsuit, was most recently fired from her role.
Bondi was the Attorney General for the Trump administration before she was fired by him. Before her, it was former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Both of them are reportedly of American heritage.
Although they were reportedly fired for completely different reasons, whether or not there was a similar or just cause for Brown getting fired remains unknown.
