Trump defends removal, signals broader push
At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump defended his decision. “Oh sure, always,” he said when asked if he stood by the move. “She seems to have had an infraction, and she can’t have an infraction—especially that infraction, because she’s in charge of, if you think about it, mortgages.”
Earlier that day, Cook’s lawyer vowed to file a lawsuit to block the dismissal. Trump repeated his concerns that Cook claimed two homes as her primary residence and said he already had “very good people” under consideration to replace her.
“We’ll have a majority, very shortly so that’ll be great once we have a majority, and housing is going to swing and it’s going to be great,” Trump said. He also floated shifting Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran, already nominated to a short-term Fed seat, to Cook’s long-term seat running until 2038. “We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters.
Nomination fight over Stephen Miran
Miran’s nomination to the seat vacated by Adriana Kugler is set for a Senate Banking Committee hearing next week. As Politico reported, Cook’s firing has complicated the process, with one GOP aide calling the hearing “a political stand and a referendum on Trump.” Democrats are expected to press Republicans on their commitment to Fed independence.
Republicans need full unity on the committee to move Miran forward, but some lawmakers have previously signaled caution about encroaching on the central bank.