Since taking office again, President Trump has aggressively sought to expand his power, asserting a right to override spending decisions by Congress, dismiss leaders of traditionally independent agencies and push through legal and even constitutional barriers on issues including immigration and birthright citizenship.
At the same time, he has used the government to pursue his campaign of retribution against political and personal foes, instigating criminal investigations, demanding big payments, revoking security clearances and dismissing federal employees.
But when Mr. Trump called for the resignation of a Federal Reserve governor this week, it marked the merging of those two defining features of his second term. He was using the tactics he has employed in targeting his enemies in the service of an attempt to exert control over the central bank, which by law is structured to maintain substantial independence from political influence.
Mr. Trump called for the resignation of the Fed governor, Lisa Cook, after Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a key political ally of the president, said that his office had investigated Ms. Cook and found that she appeared to have falsified bank documents to obtain favorable mortgage loan terms. His agency referred the matter to the Justice Department, which confirmed it received the referral.
Mr. Trump’s move to push out Ms. Cook, an appointee of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and specialist in international economics, came as he pursues a pressure campaign to install new leaders at the Fed who will heed his demand for lower interest rates. Mr. Trump has relentlessly attacked and threatened to fire the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, and accused Mr. Powell of mismanaging the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.
Mr. Trump has only limited ability to fire an official from the central bank, a protection recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. Policymakers on the Board of Governors can be removed only for “cause,” which legal experts define as breaking the law or gross misconduct.
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The post Taking on the Fed, Trump Combines Retribution Tactics With a Power Play appeared first on New York Times.
