President-elect Donald Trump has sent mixed signals for years on whether he would fire or demote Jerome Powell. But Powell made it clear Thursday that he won’t be going anywhere even if Trump tried.

Summary

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell asserts that he cannot be fired by President-elect Donald Trump, citing legal protections under the Federal Reserve Act.

Trump has previously expressed his desire to remove Powell, but legal experts argue that a policy disagreement would not constitute “for cause” removal.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    1429·
    2 months ago

    They have the SCOTUS majority and Congress you fuck.

    If you’re really trying to be bold, do something worthwhile to stop him instead of posturing about your miniscule fucking job.

    • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
      275·
      2 months ago

      He is correct, though, that as the law currently stands, Trump can’t just get rid of him on his own authority. And changing the law does take time, theres a process to go through. It’s not like they can just pass a bill that says “Trump can do whatever he damn well pleases”. It has to be worded properly to pass legal muster. There are specific committees that deal with that stuff, and the legislators in charge of that want to keep ownership of it. And he would need to get the entire Republican Caucus to agree, since it will get no Democratic support at all. A handful of Republicans might have their own reasons to not make the changes Trump demands.

      Trump can try without going through all that trouble, but the Powell gets to tell him to go pound sand, and the courts got the final say. Even if the courts are in the tank for Trump, it will still take time to resolve

      If Trump wants him gone, he could probably manage it eventually, with enough effort. But will the administration be disciplined enough to see it through? They might decide other things are more important, like putting brown people in camps.

        • potatopotato@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          2 months ago

          Law is a human construct, it is essentially a consensus structure. You can hold up a piece of paper that says “I can do what I want” and maybe it’s even legitimate, but you still need to convince other people of that and our legal structure/precedent puts more emphasis on process than being efficient or fast.

          In effect, the law has stopped trump from doing just about everything he wants to sans a few items. Every time he tries to do something he has to fight a bunch of people and that takes up some of his finite time and resources.

          Just because he has friends in all the high places doesn’t mean everyone else will just jump into line and do exactly what he wants, the more people obstruct the less damage he can do.

      • Stovetop@lemmy.world
        282·
        2 months ago

        The Supreme Court has actually set the precedent that the president is allowed to do whatever they want with complete immunity. From a legal standpoint, Trump can absolutely just get rid of him, one way or another, with no repercussions.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
          16·
          2 months ago

          For what you suggest to happen they’d have to physically block him from the office and cancel his payroll. Otherwise he just keeps going.

          • SkyNTP
            16·
            2 months ago

            Sounds to me like you are not very well read on 1930’s German history.

        • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
          28·
          2 months ago

          Within the bounds of his official duties. Which the statute defines. The President can fire many other positions whenever he likes, but not this one.

          • Stovetop@lemmy.world
            232·
            2 months ago

            Who’s gonna say no? The supreme court? The legislature? It’s GOP all the way down now.

            • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11·
              2 months ago

              Well, according to Powell, he can say no. We’ll see how well that works.

              • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
                4·
                2 months ago

                You think that the guy who looks up to a dictator that throws people that he is upset at out of windows, who has also been granted immunity to any reprecussions for illegal acts by the Supreme Court, is going to care if Powell doesn’t want to do what he wants to?

                Best to come to terms with what people non-voted for so that you’re not taken by surprise. Laws don’t mean shit for him anymore and he’s not leaving the kingship that he’s been handed on a silver platter while he’s still alive.

          • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
            7·
            2 months ago

            Really? If Trump tries and fails to fire him, then this guy is going to find himself in Gitmo, or maybe Trump will just send Seal Team 6 to kill him. Immune.

    • potatopotato@sh.itjust.works
      81·
      2 months ago

      I’d argue he is. Politics and law aren’t deterministic, the rules are flexible and determined by how people interpret them. If it was actually a non issue he wouldn’t bother saying anything. He’s posturing and trying to make a case so that the admin is less likely to start that fight. Everyone has limited time and resources so making it seem like fucking with the Fed would take a lot of both lowers the odds they try.