Jerome Powell says Trump can’t fire him. That might change | “[Tuesday’s FTC commissioner] firings are the most direct challenge yet to a 1935 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for the independent agencies that now populate the US government”

Balls, meet nuclear reactor

# Recent events

> On Tuesday, the Trump administration dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s two Democratic commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. The firings are the most direct challenge yet to a 1935 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for the independent agencies that now populate the US government.

> The ruling, known as Humphrey’s Executor, let Congress give FTC commissioners job protections that shield them from dismissal except for neglect or malfeasance.

> In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Slaughter, who plans to sue, said her dismissal has ramifications beyond the antitrust and consumer protection agency.

> **“There is no legal difference between Jerome Powell and me,” she said. “If the president can legally remove me, he can legally remove Jerome Powell.”**

> Trump has a long record of criticizing Powell, but the FTC firings are ramping up concern among Wall Street investors and economists that the Fed’s independence may now be in true jeopardy. Any central bank’s ability to foster a healthy economy depends largely on the public’s trust that policymakers will keep inflation in check, which sometimes requires painful choices. Loss of that trust could roil global financial markets and lead to higher inflation even if Trump appointees never move to juice the economy with low rates.

> On Thursday, Trump said the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates, splitting with the US central bank, which held its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday for a second straight meeting.

# Humphrey’s Executor

> The 1935 Humphrey’s case emerged after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fired Republican FTC Commissioner William Humphrey. Humphrey had died before the legal challenge was resolved, but his estate continued the litigation.

> Three months after the Supreme Court issued its decision, Congress passed legislation creating the Fed’s modern structure and insulating Federal Reserve governors from removal, except for cause.

> Conservative legal scholars have long viewed the case as handing too much power to regulators and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 called it “ripe for revisiting.” The Justice Department said last month the administration will no longer defend the precedent and would push the Supreme Court to reverse it.

> **In several recent cases, the Supreme Court has signaled that it’s primed to overrule Humphrey’s as an infringement on the president’s constitutional authority over the executive branch**, said Chad Squitieri, a professor who teaches constitutional law at Catholic University. The same logic would apply to the Federal Reserve, he said.

> “It’s not as scary as it might sound,” Squitieri said last month in a webinar arranged by the conservative Federalist Society. “We trust the president with the nuclear codes. We can also trust the president with managing the Fed.”

!ping STOVE-TOUCHERS

For context, Trump wants to fire Powell because he is obsessed with implementing tariffs and cutting interest rates, supposedly to fight US inflation. Both will do the opposite and Powell knows this in regards to the rate cuts. So far Powell has resisted calls to cut rates, criticized tariffs as inflationary and is trying to stop Trump from imploding the US economy.