There are many ways to get what you want in politics. Raise money. Hold rallies. Engage voters and sell your ideas, policies and personality. Donald Trump did all those things as a political candidate, but as president he has used more aggressive methods to reach his goals. Faced with potential losses in next year’s midterm elections, for example, he has pushed for political maps to be redrawn in his favor. Confronted with policies in other countries that he doesn’t like, he has wielded tariffs as a cudgel to force change. And stuck with a central bank that won’t cut interest rates as rapidly as he wished, Trump has fired one of its governors. Or tried to, anyway. Trump is pushing the limits of presidential power to get what he wants. And while the courts will decide if his latest move is legal, in many cases, his methods – with fairly little resistance – are working. 

It’s no secret that Trump is not happy with the Federal Reserve. The president has criticized its chair, Jerome Powell, and flirted with firing him for months, primarily because the central banker would not cut interest rates to goose an economy that the Republican leader, from a political perspective, now owns. But Trump has not followed through on his threats to do away with the man he himself appointed during his first term, bowing to pressure from financial markets and perhaps his Treasury secretary over an expectation that the U.S. central bank should remain independent. 

That narrative came to a halt with his attempted firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. On Monday the president informed the world that he was terminating Cook, one of seven members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the body that sets interest rate policy, in an unprecedented move to reshape the leadership of an institution that normally has a hands-off relationship with whatever administration happens to be in power. Trump alleged that Cook, who has a PhD in economics and is the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, had committed mortgage fraud. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed her to the position. Cook, who has faced no charges related to Trump’s allegations, has sued him to stay in place. 

Let’s not underplay the significance of Trump’s move: The president, who has sought to put his stamp on multiple aspects of U.S. society and major institutions in Washington, including the Kennedy Center and the D.C. government, is more or less trying to take over the Fed by freeing up a position he can fill with a loyalist.    

Most U.S. presidents steer clear of commenting about the Federal Reserve, let alone influencing monetary policy or knocking members off the board of governors. Of the three presidents I have covered most closely – Barack Obama, Trump and Biden – only the 45th and 47th president has made it a habit to weigh in on the central bank’s policies routinely and robustly.  

Independent central banks around the world are seen as key to maintaining a stable global economy, but Trump is not a man who values norms. In addition to the attempt to fire Cook, he ousted the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had barely begun her job in his administration. Rejecting Republican orthodoxy on government involvement in business, he arranged a federal stake in Intel and is eyeing shares in more companies. Trump is busting norms to fit his will. And more than half a year into his second term, it appears the president has only just begun.

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

Russian oil exports to India are set to rise in September, dealers said, as New Delhi defies U.S. punitive tariffs designed to force the country to stop the trade and push Moscow towards a peace deal with Ukraine. India’s purchases of Russian oil supplies have drawn condemnation from the Trump administration, which increased U.S. tariffs on Indian imports to 50% on Wednesday.