Explainer: Can Trump fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell? - theguardian.com

Can Trump legally fire the Fed chair?

The clearest answer: right now, probably not, but things could change.

On Wednesday, Powell affirmed that the Fed’s independence “is a matter of law”. “We’re not removable except for cause,” Powell said. “Fed independence has pretty broad support across both political parties and on both sides of the hill.” But he also mentioned a case going through the supreme court that may alter the power the president has over federal agencies, going off Trump firing an official with the National Labor Relations Board.

It’s unclear how the court will rule, but it allowed the firings to stand, overruling a lower court. “I don’t think that that decision will apply to the Fed, but I don’t know,” Powell said. “It’s a situation that we’re monitoring carefully.” The Fed’s next board meeting is on 6 and 7 May. Trump is likely trying to pressure the Fed ahead of it, but it is unlikely that officials will budge.

  • ClathrateG [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    29·
    5 days ago

    Depends on your definition of legal, but yes he’s not a democrat pretending to be straightjacketed by ‘norms’ and ‘civility’,

    He absolutely can use the power of the most powerful political office on earth to remove Powell

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    24·
    5 days ago

    The clearest answer: right now, probably not, but things could change.

    This is not accurate. Gwynne Wilcox was fired from the NLRB and while the courts are deciding whether or not Trump had the legal authority to do that she remains de facto not a member of the board. If Trump were to fire Powell there is no reason to think he would be allowed to remain chair while litigating the matter. The courts have already decided that the burden is on the former officials to prove Trump cannot fire them, not the other way around.

    • Parzivus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      18·
      5 days ago

      The Supreme Court can unanimously order Trump to do something and he just ignores them. I don’t know why some people still think that the law is going to stop him

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      7·
      5 days ago

      I don’t understand what you mean.

      The clearest answer: right now, probably not, but things could change.

      I think it’s very likely the 6 GOP justices will give him the power.

      • ThermonuclearEgg [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        5 days ago

        The “law” in question is that any headline posed as a question can be answered “No”

        Thus, because it’s “another L”, that means that this headline cannot be answered No, because as you said, it doesn’t matter if it’s legal or not, he’ll just do it and drag it on in the courts for as long as he can.

      • MaxOS [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        5 days ago

        I was just joking that betteridge’s law of headlines does not apply here because trump probably can fire the fed chair and nobody will stop him

    • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      19·
      5 days ago

      i think it’s 50/50. he’s fucking with the money, and in ways even the ultra-wealthy can’t really take advantage of with insider trading

      that ruling would basically be a “completely destroy the U.S. aligned order/economic system and dollar please daddy” ticket.

      and while I have zero faith in U.S. institutions, I do think the sheer erratic way he is doing things is starting to disturb even his closest allies.

      like, he literally could have done all this shit in a slightly more controlled demolition and made his buddies stinking rich but he’s just incapable of such things

  • goferking (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    6·
    5 days ago

    amazing how much libs love Powell.

    He helped keep inflation down…which as a byproduct we’re happily ignoring killed wage growth as labor got power and worked to keep people from being able to avoid housing by raising loan rates