Can the president remove a Fed governor?

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Late Monday, President Trump announced plans to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors over unproven allegations of mortgage fraud. The move is part of his months-long effort to reshape the central bank and pressure it to lower interest rates. But meddling with the Fed's independence could backfire. On today's show, we look at the implications of political interference at the Fed, from the bond market to the U.S. and global economies. Plus, how FEMA's elimination of hazard mitigation programs will affect the country.

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Transcript

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0:37.9	UK slash Marketplace 22.
0:40.6	Go to Shopify.com.
0:42.3	UK slash Marketplace 22.
0:47.1	The question hanging over the economy, and not for the first time, is,
0:53.2	can the president do that? From American public media, this is Marketplace.
1:05.0	In Denver, I'm Amy Scott in for Kai Rizdahl. It is Tuesday, August 26th. Good to have you with us.
1:14.4	We're going to start today with the unfolding story of President Trump's attempts to fire Federal Reserve
1:19.7	Governor Lisa Cook. In a letter late yesterday, Trump said he would remove Cook ostensibly over
1:26.1	unproven allegations of mortgage fraud.
1:29.2	The bigger context, of course, is that the president has been trying to influence the Fed's
1:34.3	makeup for months in order to push the central bank to lower interest rates.
1:39.9	Governor Cook is planning to file a lawsuit to prevent what her lawyer calls an illegal action by the president.
	...

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