$BTC #TrumpVsPowell Trump’s knives are out for Jerome Powell
President Trump has spent the first months of his presidency upending longstanding norms, from firing commissioners of independent agencies to ramping up tariffs against U.S. allies and rivals alike. But there is one line he hasn’t crossed: Firing the head of the central bank. This week, though, new developments have raised fears that Trump could take the once-unthinkable step of dismissing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
On Thursday, Trump issued a tirade on his social media platform Truth Social, blasting the Fed Chair as always “too late and wrong” about cutting interest rates, adding “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”
Meanwhile, a new report claims Trump has been privately telling aides he wants to remove Powell before his term expires in a year. Powell has said he would not resign if Trump asked. All of this sets up a potential legal showdown that could upend nearly a century of legal and political precedent—and that critics fear would destroy confidence in the U.S. economy. To understand what’s at stake, Fortune asked law professors and policy experts for their view on an explosive issue that is fast making its way to the Supreme Court.
What is Humphrey’s Executor?
Trump, whose recent outburst came after a Powell speech stating that tariffs could exacerbate inflation, has not taken formal steps to dismiss the Fed Chair. But he has fired commissioners from other independent agencies that fall under the executive branch, including the Federal Trade Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. These moves come as a direct challenge to a nearly century-old precedent, where a unanimous Supreme Court, in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States held that President Franklin Roosevelt could not remove the heads of an independent agency without a good reason such as neglect or wrongdoing
“That’s a really foundational Supreme Court precedent,” said Hayley Durudogan, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
