WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire a member of the Federal Reserve’s governing board has raised alarms among economists and legal experts who see it as the biggest threat to the central bank’s independence in decades.
The consequences could impact most Americans’ everyday lives: Economists worry that if Trump gets what he wants — a loyal Fed that sharply cuts short-term interest rates — the result would likely be higher inflation and, over time, higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages, car loans and business loans.
Trump on Monday sought to fire Lisa Cook, the first Black woman appointed to the Fed’s seven-member governing board. It was the first time in the Fed’s 112-year history that a president has tried to fire a governor.
Trump said he was doing so because of allegations raised by one of his appointees that she has committed mortgage fraud.
Cook has argued in a lawsuit seeking to block her firing that the claims are a pretext for Trump’s true goal: Gaining more control over the Fed. A court may decide next week whether to temporarily block Cook’s firing while the case makes its way through the legal process.
Cook is accused of claiming two homes as primary residences in July 2021, before she joined the board, which could have led to a lower mortgage rate than if one had been classified as a second home or an investment property. She has suggested in her lawsuit that it may have been a clerical error but hasn’t directly responded to the accusations.
Fed independence ‘hangs by a thread’
Trump and members of his administration have made no secret about their desire to exert more control over the Fed. Trump has repeatedly demanded that the central bank cut its key rate to as low as 1.3%, from its current level of 4.3%.
Before trying to fire Cook, Trump repeatedly attacked the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, for not cutting the short-term interest rate and threatened to fire him as well.