The media loved to complain that former President Donald Trump was always violating long-standing political norms. President Biden, we were told, would end such chaos and reinstate normality and respect at the heart of government power.

Perhaps not. On Wednesday, Biden broke a presidential norm that Trump never dared violate. Biden did so by firing members of independent agencies appointed by the previous administration. In the days preceding the firing, Biden’s deputy director of the Presidential Personnel Office, Gautam Raghavan, asked for the resignation of several Trump appointees. These included Roger Severino, Jennifer Dickey, Andrew Kloster, and Dan Epstein. In an apparent violation of federal law, Raghavan threatened to fire them if they didn’t resign. This, even though the appointees are serving fixed terms.