{"id":22140,"date":"2025-09-18T09:01:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=22140"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:01:42","slug":"the-fed-rate-cut-wont-be-enough-to-appease-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=22140","title":{"rendered":"The Fed Rate Cut Won\u2019t Be Enough to Appease Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/p>\n

The Federal Reserve finally cut interest rates today\u2014but that\u2019s not likely to stop the president\u2019s pressure campaign against the central bank anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Hesitant to overstimulate the economy amid the looming threat of \u201csomewhat elevated\u201d inflation, but also mindful of two consecutive weak jobs reports, the bank\u2019s board voted for a middle path: a 0.25 percent cut to interest rates. That\u2019s almost certainly less than Trump would like\u2014he posted on social media over the summer that the rate was \u201cAT LEAST\u201d three points too high\u2014but enough to let lenders breathe a little easier in the coming months and potentially encourage employers to start hiring. Still, this fairly standard rate cut is haunted by Trump\u2019s repeated attacks on the Fed and its independence.<\/p>\n

If successful, the Trump administration\u2019s attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee and the first Black woman to sit on the Fed board, would mark the only ousting of its kind since the institution\u2019s establishment, in 1913. Although the board\u2019s governors are appointed by a president, they are not beholden to any president\u2019s whims, and their full 14-year term ensures that their decisions are oriented around the long-term health of the American economy. Other presidents have pressured the Fed to adjust rates (the Nixon tapes revealed several testy conversations between the president and then\u2013Fed Chair Arthur Burns), but only one has gone so far as to fire a governor. The move has already faced significant legal challenges: On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled 2\u20131 that Cook would be allowed to remain on the board in the near term and cast her vote today. The Trump administration is preparing to appeal that decision as it tests the limits of the central bank\u2019s commitment to independence.<\/p>\n

Another test of that commitment comes in the form of Stephen Miran, a brand-new board appointee replacing former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who abruptly resigned in August. Miran was nominated by Trump earlier this month, confirmed by the Senate on Monday, and sworn in yesterday morning\u2014but more unusual than his accelerated confirmation is the fact that he is still a member of the Trump administration. In refusing to resign his position as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers while he serves on the Fed board (instead taking an unpaid leave of absence), Miran is at once serving \u201ca president who has demanded that the Fed lower interest rates and sitting on the ostensibly independent board that sets interest rates,\u201d my colleague David A. Graham recently wrote. \u201cConflicts of interest aren\u2019t usually quite so obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Miran was the only dissenting vote on today\u2019s rate cut (he pushed for a more drastic, 0.5 percent cut) certainly won\u2019t quash speculation that he\u2019s a mouthpiece for Trump. But his first 24 hours on the board haven\u2019t changed much: The modest 0.25 percent cut is more a direct response to worse-than-expected jobs data than a capitulation to Trump\u2019s attacks. Because decisions are made by a collective vote, a rogue vote or two won\u2019t sway an otherwise unified group. But that may not hold. If the courts clear the way for Trump to fire Cook, there\u2019s nothing stopping Trump from installing a second governor who will advocate in his favor.<\/p>\n

A quarter-percent rate cut won\u2019t fulfill Trump\u2019s personal wish for a return to the era of easy money, which is to say that it will probably deepen the rift between Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Trump called Powell (whom he appointed as chair during his first term) a \u201cstupid person\u201d back in June, and gave him the uninspired nickname \u201cToo Late,\u201d in reference to Powell\u2019s perceived reluctance to lower rates. When Trump visited the Fed in July, after reportedly criticizing the ballooning costs associated with renovating two of its buildings, he and Powell appeared visibly uncomfortable in each other\u2019s presence\u2014Powell all the more so when Trump slapped him on the back and chided him once again for refusing to lower interest rates. In an apparent attempt to backtrack some of his more brazen moves, Trump told reporters yesterday that the Fed should remain independent\u2014but also that it should listen to \u201csmart people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Trump eventually does somehow cow Fed officials into drastically lowering rates, the result would likely have lasting consequences: a boom in the near term and a bust in the long term. For now, the Fed is still independent; the relative restraint of today\u2019s cut reaffirms that, even if Powell\u2019s comments about the decision revealed no clues as to his confidence in the future. \u201cWe\u2019re strongly committed to maintaining our independence,\u201d he said when asked whether Miran\u2019s membership on the board might involve the Fed in day-to-day politics. \u201cBeyond that, I really don\u2019t have anything to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s hard to imagine that Trump will back off: As the Fed scholar Lev Menand pointed out in The Atlantic last month, \u201cthe Federal Reserve is one of the few holdouts in Trump\u2019s assault on American institutions,\u201d which makes it only shinier a prize for a president bent on consolidating influence. Trump\u2019s acolytes have already permeated Congress and the Supreme Court. With the appointment of Miran and the possible firing of Cook, the president is looking to command yet another instrument of American power.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/p>\n

\n

Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s News<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. On his second day of congressional hearings, FBI Director Kash Patel claimed that court orders prevent him from releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, but a federal judge has disputed this, saying that the Trump administration has the authority to disclose them.<\/li>\n
  2. In her first public appearance since being fired, former CDC Director Susan Monarez testified before the Senate that she was dismissed after refusing to approve vaccine recommendations made by the vaccine advisory panel before seeing the data and science behind them. A spokesperson for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disputed her account ahead of her prepared remarks in the hearing.<\/li>\n
  3. President Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, began their second state visit to the United Kingdom. They met with King Charles III and Queen Camilla today, and will sit down with Prime Minister Keir Starmer tomorrow.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Evening Read<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Illustration by Antonio Giovanni Pinna<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s Fun to Be a Board-Game Sociopath<\/p>\n

    By Julie Beck<\/p>\n

    The one rule of Werewolf is: Don\u2019t let them know you\u2019re a werewolf.<\/p>\n

    Okay, there are a few more rules to the card game than that. You and your friends sit in a circle and are distributed cards, face down, that assign you to the role of villager or werewolf. No one knows who is who. If you are on the villagers\u2019 team, you work with the other villagers to figure out who the werewolves are and kill them, by majority vote. If you are a werewolf, you want to hide that identity and cast suspicion on other people so that everyone will vote to kill a villager instead \u2026<\/p>\n

    Some of my friends hate this game\u2014the lying stresses them out, or they don\u2019t like conflict. But what can I say? I love to betray my friends.<\/p>\n

    Read the full article.<\/p>\n

    More From The Atlantic<\/em><\/p>\n

    Culture Break<\/p>\n

    Peter Kramer \/ HBO<\/p>\n

    Watch. Task (streaming on HBO Max) is a new crime drama that has violence, vengeance, and a point to make about men, Sophie Gilbert writes.<\/p>\n

    Take a look. Here are some images of bird life from around the world captured by the winners and honorable mentions from the Audubon Society\u2019s 16th-annual photography competition.<\/p>\n

    Play our daily crossword.<\/p>\n

    Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.<\/p>\n

    When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting <\/em>The Atlantic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The Federal Reserve finally cut interest rates today\u2014but that\u2019s not likely to stop the president\u2019s pressure campaign against the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[5540,304,4437,2434,81,3982],"class_list":{"0":"post-22140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-appease","9":"tag-cut","10":"tag-fed","11":"tag-rate","12":"tag-trump","13":"tag-wont"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}