Fans of the decades-running television trivia quiz show “Jeopardy!” are acquainted with professional gambler James Holzhauer, who knows how to “push it” and win big—Holzhauer among the show’s biggest winners with 32 consecutive appearances and winnings topping $3.6 million.
Union Pacific (UP) similarly is “pushing it” with an intended $85 billion merger transaction boasting a colossal payoff—the nation’s first seamless Atlantic-to-Pacific transcontinental railroad that will link UP and Norfolk Southern (NS). But UP also faces a stupendous downside risk—a $2.5 billion reverse termination fee that it must pay to NS should the transaction be denied by regulators or if it is voluntarily scuttled owing to unacceptable conditions.
Could UP be seeking to tilt the playing field in the proposed merger’s favor by currying favor with POTUS 47?
Although the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has sole authority to approve a railroad merger and is independent of the Executive Branch, its chairperson (currently Republican Patrick J. Fuchs) serves in that role at the pleasure of the President. And under POTUS 47’s embrace of a unitary theory of government, every member of a supposed independent regulatory agency such as the STB answers directly to the POTUS, as do members of the Executive Branch.
This was pounded home in August 2025 when POTUS 47 summarily fired STB member and Democrat Robert E. Primus in violation of a statute requiring that termination of Senate-confirmed independent regulatory agency members be for cause—of which none was provided. Primus has a judicial appeal pending.
Notably, Primus’ firing by POTUS 47 came after UP CEO Jim Vena met privately with Primus, and barely a month following public announcement of a proposed UP-NS merger. Primus had been the lone STB vote against the March 2023 STB approval of a Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern consolidation creating CPKC. Among Primus’ objections were previous rail merger service disruptions adversely affecting shippers and negative impacts on rail workers.
Then came Vena’s visit—post-merger-announcement—to the White House where he handed the President a check for an undisclosed amount toward construction of a White House ballroom. Although the two discussed the merger—POTUS 47 saying, “It sounds good to me”—a UP spokesperson said the ballroom contribution was mutually exclusive of the merger discussion.
Significantly, there is neither evidence, indication nor credible allegation that any member of the STB—Fuchs, fellow Republican Michelle A. Schultz or Democrat Karen J. Hedlund; or Primus before being cashiered—ever voted other than based on the law and facts of each case. Fuchs, from his first day as chairperson, has prioritized full transparency.
Transparency includes that Fuchs and Schultz were nominated by POTUS 47 to their first and now second and final (by statute) terms. Each will be in office beyond an anticipated UP-NS merger decision date. Hedlund was nominated to her first term by President Joe Biden, but is hopeful for renomination by POTUS 47 to a second term that would extend her tenure beyond an anticipated merger decision date. POTUS 47 recently nominated Republican Richard Kloster to an empty STB seat formally held by Democrat Martin J. Oberman—the nomination awaiting full Senate confirmation that will allow Kloster to vote on the merger.
Primus’ seat is vacant—it is not clear if a federal court, in ruling the firing unlawful, could also order reinstatement; or whether POTUS 47 will nominate another Democrat to the seat.
The STB has no quorum requirement, and even a single member may decide a case before it.
Comes now Vena’s doubling down on his POTUS 47 bet—the unveiling in March of Union Pacific commemorative locomotive No. 4547 in honor of POTUS 47. Predominantly white with large American flags on each side, its number reflects that the President was POTUS 45 in his first term and is now POTUS 47. The President’s name is printed in gold lettering next to Union Pacific’s logo. No railroad has ever so honored a sitting U.S President. (UP previously honored Presidents Abraham Lincon and George H. W. Bush with a special locomotive livery—the Bush honor in 2005, some 13 years after he left the Presidency.)
The late Clinton J. Miller, a rail union attorney of considerable renown, consistently counseled those not thoroughly considering the consequences of their actions, “Let me know how this turns out for you.”
No matter a UP-NS merger outcome, UP’s POTUS-honoring locomotive risks becoming a corporate humiliation, even a graffiti or vandalism target. Indeed, what was UP thinking in unveiling it?
Perhaps Vena was following the lead of foreign leaders in playing to POTUS 47’s unapologetic narcissism through unremitting adulation?
This is a President who beguiled a Nobel Peace Prize winner to hand over to him her medal, who put his name above that of President John F. Kennedy on the formerly John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and who will be the first living President to have his signature on U.S. currency and likeness on a commemorative U.S. coin. His Cabinet, chosen for unrequited loyalty, spends more time praising him at televised Cabinet meetings than providing factual briefings.
Vena cannot bury in the ballast that POTUS 47 is twice impeached and a 34-count convicted felon (judicial appeals active). If Democrats regain a House majority in November, POTUS 47 is likely to be impeached a third time. If Democrats also regain a Senate majority, he may be convicted and removed from office—a two-thirds Senate vote required.
Although a lesser likelihood, POTUS 47 could be removed from office under provisions of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, as advocated by former staunch supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Other prominent former POTUS 47 enthusiastic defenders, and now POTUS 47 naysayers, include conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and podcaster Megyn Kelly.
If judged by content of character, an albatross of moral shortcomings is POTUS 47’s constant companion. He has admitted to groping women and was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil case verdict upheld by a federal appellate court. He has used divisive language on race and immigration. He has associated with White nationalists and granted Presidential pardons to White supremacists. He has made misogynistic remarks. He is accused repeatedly of uttering falsehoods. He is alleged to have monetized, for the benefit of his family business, the Presidency through crypto currency ventures, real estate and licensing arrangements, and gifts (there are no credible allegations of unlawfulness). He accelerated the Consumer Price Index by imposing tariffs found to be unlawful. And now UP is honoring him with a commemorative locomotive. (Railway Age has a policy of using “POTUS 47” in place of his sullied name.)
Most shockingly—and a catalyst to a swift and growing schism among Republicans previously supporting him—is POTUS 47’s war on Iran. It was launched without congressional approval, is having significant adverse economic impact on the global economy and, specifically, Americans, and the war’s stated objectives have changed frequently. Journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame attributes to POTUS 47 son-in-law Jared Kushner that the Cheshire Cat in “Alice in Wonderland” helps explain POTUS 47’s unconventional management style: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there.”
Vena knows the destination but seems confused as to the mode of conveyance. A merger is not a rate case where shippers can be outspent and outlasted. Nor is it legislation where lobbyists and PAC contributions can overwhelm the opposition. The optics of UP’s strategy so far have put STB members in an untenable situation and exposed, by association, UP’s reputation.
Jim Vena and Union Pacific are better than this, and there is time for repair.
Vena can limit the photo-ops for UP locomotive No. 4547, change the name to George Washington or Thomas Jefferson (or another Declaration of Independence signer) and change the road number; or, better, quietly retire it. Especially, he can redirect corporate focus to the merits of this transaction and cease micro-managing his highly competent legal team—his previous interference likely contributing to the first merger application being rejected in January. UP ego has, unfortunately, put STB members in an untenable position.
Had Vena first enquired of professional gamblers such as Holzhauer, he might have been counseled—in more blunt language than used by the late Mr. Miller—“Don’t get steamrolled by your own steam.”
Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics and labor relations, is a former STB chief of staff, having advised Vice Chairperson Gus Owen at the time of the 1996 UP-Southern Pacific merger for which Owen voted “yes.” Wilner’s railroad career reaches back to the 1960s on New York Central, Penn Central and Norfolk & Western. For almost two decades he was Assistant Vice President for Policy at the Association of American Railroads, and was Director of Public Relations for the United Transportation Union and its SMART-TD successor. Among his seven books on railroad economics, history and labor is “Railroads & Economic Regulation,” available from Simmons-Boardman Books, 800-228-9670.
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