Dem
47
GOP
53
Sometimes Donald Trump is faced with a genuine problem. There are times when what is good for him personally is very bad for his base. This puts him in a bind, but "good for me personally" usually wins, especially since he probably knows that a third term is not going to happen, in part because he will be 82 on Jan. 20, 2029, and 86 on Jan. 20, 2033 (if he gets that far). So, keeping the base happy is secondary.
This is one of those moments. He wants interest rates to come way down because his real estate empire runs on borrowed money. Consequently, he has threatened to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell if Powell doesn't comply. Powell is taking his good time on the interest rate cut (which he's hinted strongly at, but not committed to) and is also refusing to resign. The problem (which Powell is well aware of) is that lower interest rates will spark inflation, which Trump's base HATES, and which is what got Trump elected last year. Inflation due to interest rates and tariffs would not be good for Republicans next year. Still, with Trump, the personal usually trumps the political.
Another factor here is that Trump wants to get control over every source of power other than the presidency. He already has the media, law firms, and universities, and is working on the blue cities and businesses, so the Fed is just next in line.
Since Powell will not go easily and could possibly win a court fight if Trump fires him, Trump has picked a different target for the moment, Fed governor Lisa Cook. Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency, and a key political ally of Trump, has claimed that Cook filed improper paperwork when getting a mortgage (the issue concerns whether her home in Michigan or her condo in Atlanta would be her principal residence). Even if the allegations are true, which is far from certain given the motivation of the source, the "punishment" would be formally charging her with bank fraud and putting her on trial, not removing her from the Fed Board of Governors. But it is not so simple, because a charge of fraud also involves intent to defraud. And the event happened before she was appointed to the Fed Board. This is extra delicious for Trump because Cook is a Black woman. He has called for her to resign, but she hasn't (so far). In fact, she said: "I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet."
If it turns out that she did commit bank fraud, she would be in good company. Donald Trump committed massive bank fraud involving vast amounts of money over a period of years and was found civilly liable for it. Last week, a New York appellate court said well, stuff happens, but there was no need for him to even pay a fine for it, despite the fraud being systematic and over a long period of time. If Cook were put on trial, her lawyers could say: "Everyone does it, even the president." It could be a new line of defense for everyone henceforth put on trial for bank fraud.
Mitchell Sollenberger, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said this move is a continuation of the "unitary executive theory," which basically says the president is a king with unchecked power except for what the Constitution has explicitly granted to the other branches, and maybe not even that. He said: "It's unprecedented, it's shocking and frankly should be deeply troubling." Prof. Daniel Farber, who has written about presidential power, said: "I see it fitting into his use of threats of questionable legality—but very practical implications of risk for the person at the receiving end of the threat—to twist people's arms and get them to do what he wants. It does fit into this battle of independence of agencies and independence of civil services and institutions he wants to bring to heel." (V)