Trump has ‘somebody I like’ to replace Lisa Cook, Fed governor challenging her removal
As the Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump wants to quickly nominate a replacement for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor who is resisting his attempt to force her out, the president told reporters he has a favorite candidate.
Asked about possible replacements for Cook during his marathon televised cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said: “We have some very good people for that position.”
“I think, maybe in my own mind, I have somebody that I like,” Trump added, before saying that he would also consult Scott Bessant, the treasury secretary, and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.
Trump appears to be considering the possibility of naming his economic adviser Stephen Miran to serve out the remainder of Cook’s term, which does not expire until 2038. Earlier this month, Trump nominated Miran to serve for a much shorter term, as a replacement for another member of the Fed’s board, Adriana Kugler, a Biden nominee who was due to be replaced in five months.
Cook has said that she will sue to keep her position as a governor of the independent central bank and her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called Trump’s move to fire her “illegal”.
In May, when the supreme court’s conservative majority ruled that the president could fire members of other independent agencies without cause, they rejected the argument that allowing him to do so would also permit him to replace members of the Federal Reserve. The court’s order on the other agencies, the justices wrote, had no bearing on “the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections” for members of the central bank.
“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the conservative justices wrote.
Key events
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After Trump comments, Cracker Barrel relents to conservative pressure and ditches new logo
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Trump’s transportation secretary cancels more funding for California high-speed rail ‘fantasy’
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Trump has ‘somebody I like’ to replace Lisa Cook, Fed governor challenging her removal
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Trump appeals to New York’s highest court to erase judgment that he committed fraud
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Following Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting, here’s a recap of the day so far
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Trump says he’d ‘like to be asked’ to send troops into blue cities
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Trump says he’s prepared for legal fight from Lisa Cook
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Bessent says tariff revenue could reach ‘half a trillion’ a year
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Elon Musk’s Doge put sensitive social security data at risk, whistleblower says
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Trump administration will seek death penalty in DC homicide cases, president says
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Trump again claims that some people would ‘rather have a dictator’ – and again insists he isn’t one
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HHS asks 46 states and territories to remove ‘gender ideology’ content from sex ed materials
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As Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting gets going, here’s a recap of the day so far
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Lisa Cook’s lawyer says that she plans to file a lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempted firing
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Judge dismisses unprecedented DoJ lawsuit against all Maryland federal judges
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Top congressional Democrats fire back against Trump’s plans to remove Federal Reserve governor
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Twenty years on – Hurricane Katrina haunts New Orleans as Trump guts disaster aid
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More than 100 organizations demand release of American-Palestinian teen held in Israeli prison
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Attorney general touts 1,094 arrests in DC
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House minority leader Jeffries hits back at Trump plan to fire Federal Reserve governor
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‘No cause exists under the law’: Federal Reserve governor responds to Trump’s move to fire her
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Fed expert calls Trump’s attempt to fire Cook is ‘procedurally invalid removal’
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Trump says he hopes to meet Kim Jong-un and raises prospect of US taking over some South Korean land
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Utah congressional map, which helps Republicans, must be redrawn, judge rules
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Who is Bill Pulte? The Trump appointee leading attacks against Lisa Cook
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Trump accused of ‘cobbling together’ mortgage fraud allegations to fire Lisa Cook
After Trump comments, Cracker Barrel relents to conservative pressure and ditches new logo
Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it is scrapping its new logo, and returning to its old one, hours after Donald Trump joined the conservative backlash to the change.
“Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before” the president posted on Tuesday morning. “Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again.”
“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel”, the company said in a statement. “We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.”
The new logo, a corporate rebrand that was widely interpreted on the right as somehow “woke”, removed both the image of a barrel and of the Cracker Barrel store founder Dan Evins’ Uncle Herschel.
The company, in a Monday post on its website, said its fans have shown them “that we could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”
“While our logo and remodels may be making headlines, our bigger focus is still where it belongs … in the kitchen and on your plate,” said the Lebanon, Tennessee-based chain, which opened its first store in 1969.
Cracker Barrel’s shares slumped after the backlash last week, wiping out year-to-date gains, but were up 7% in extended trading on Tuesday after the company, with a market value of $1.29bn, scrapped the new logo.
George Chidi
Texas’s redrawn congressional maps have drawn a lawsuit from the NAACP, accusing the state of committing a racial gerrymander with its maps that strip Black voters of their political power.
The lawsuit, joined by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, names Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, and secretary of state, Jane Nelson, as defendants. It asks a federal judge for a preliminary injunction preventing the use of the redrawn maps, arguing that the redistricting violates the US constitution by improperly reducing the power of voters of color. It also argues that the maps violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“We now see just how far extremist leaders are willing to go to push African Americans back toward a time when we were denied full personhood and equal rights,” the president of the Texas NAACP, Gary Bledsoe, said in a statement. “We call on Texans of every background to recognize the dangers of this moment. Our democracy depends on ensuring that every person is counted fully, valued equally and represented fairly. We are prepared to fight this injustice at every level. Our future depends on it.”
Texas Republicans passed a redrawn map on Saturday, with the expected result of an increase in Republican representation by five seats in the next Congress. Democratic state legislators are a minority in both chambers of the Texas legislature, leaving them with few options to block it. A group of state house representatives spent nearly a month away from the state to deny Republicans a quorum. That maneuver ended last week, after California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the state legislature began a process to counter the Republican gerrymander with a Democratic gerrymander of their own.
“The state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Trump’s transportation secretary cancels more funding for California high-speed rail ‘fantasy’
In a deeply partisan press release, Sean Duffy, the former Republican congressman and Fox host serving as Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, announced the cancellation of $175m in funding for four projects related to what he called “California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle”.
Last month, Duffy withdrew $4bn in federal grants from the state’s much-delayed high-speed rail project.
The funding cancelled on Tuesday was to build a high-speed rail station in Madera, in addition to grade separation and design work.
California went to court last month to challenge the legality of the decision to cancel previously approved federal funding.
In the press release, Duffy continued a central theme of the Trump administration: attacking former president Joe Biden.
“In twenty years, California has not been able to lay a single track of high-speed rail,” Duffy said. “Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg didn’t care about these failures and dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s wishlist of related fantasy projects.”
The funding cuts are another hurdle to the 16-year effort to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by a three-hour train ride, a project that would deliver the fastest passenger rail service in the United States.
Since a $10bn bond issue was approved by California voters in 2008, the rail system has built more than 50 major railway structures, including bridges, overpasses, under-crossings and viaducts, and completed 70 miles (113km) of guideway.
The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 for $33bn. But the projected cost has since risen to $89bn to $128bn, and the start of service is expected by 2033.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, his cancellation of $929m in federal grants was challenged in court by the state. In 2021, after he defeated Trump and took office, Biden restored the funding.
Trump has ‘somebody I like’ to replace Lisa Cook, Fed governor challenging her removal
As the Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump wants to quickly nominate a replacement for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor who is resisting his attempt to force her out, the president told reporters he has a favorite candidate.
Asked about possible replacements for Cook during his marathon televised cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said: “We have some very good people for that position.”
“I think, maybe in my own mind, I have somebody that I like,” Trump added, before saying that he would also consult Scott Bessant, the treasury secretary, and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.
Trump appears to be considering the possibility of naming his economic adviser Stephen Miran to serve out the remainder of Cook’s term, which does not expire until 2038. Earlier this month, Trump nominated Miran to serve for a much shorter term, as a replacement for another member of the Fed’s board, Adriana Kugler, a Biden nominee who was due to be replaced in five months.
Cook has said that she will sue to keep her position as a governor of the independent central bank and her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called Trump’s move to fire her “illegal”.
In May, when the supreme court’s conservative majority ruled that the president could fire members of other independent agencies without cause, they rejected the argument that allowing him to do so would also permit him to replace members of the Federal Reserve. The court’s order on the other agencies, the justices wrote, had no bearing on “the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections” for members of the central bank.
“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the conservative justices wrote.
Trump appeals to New York’s highest court to erase judgment that he committed fraud
Donald Trump filed a notice of appeal on Tuesday, asking New York state’s highest court to vacate a judgment against him in a civil fraud case brought by the state’s attorney general, .
The court filing, first reported by Courthouse News, comes days after a lower-level New York appeals court threw out a penalty of more than $500 million imposed on Trump and his family business after a judge found that he that he had persistently committed fraud by inflating his net worth on financial documents to get bank loans and insurance.
A majority of that lower court’s judges found that the amount, imposed by was “excessive”, but left the finding that Trump committed fraud in place.
Trump’s new appeal seeks to have the rest of the judgment against him overturned as well, including sanctions against the Trump Organization and its former executives, including members of his family.
Following Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting, here’s a recap of the day so far
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During the three-hour meeting, the president addressed a number of questions. He responded, for the first time, to the news that Lisa Cook – the Federal Reserve governor he has moved to fire – will file a lawsuit challenging Trump’s plans to remove her from the board. “She’s in charge of, if you think about it, mortgages, and we need people that are 100% above board, and it doesn’t seem like she was,” the president said.
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Important note that Cook has not been charged with any crime. Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said earlier that Trump had “no authority” to remove her from the Fed’s board of governors. Lowell added that the president’s attempt to fire Cook was “based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis”.
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When it comes to the Trump’s threats of sending troops to Democratic-led cities and states, he didn’t back down, but shifted his tone in an apparent attempt to legitimize his plans to crackdown on crime. Trump said that he “would love” for Illinois governor JB Pritzker to call him for help. “I’d like to be asked, as opposed to just going in and doing it,” he added. For their part, Democratic leaders have pushed back. “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me – not time or political circumstance – from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
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Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) copied and uploaded sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially risking the safety of hundreds of millions of Americans and violating federal privacy laws, according to a whistleblower complaint filed today. Read more about the alleged breach here.
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Also today, a federal judge dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against all 15 judges serving on Maryland’s federal district court. Judge Thomas Cullen – a Trump appointee who normally sits in Virginia – presided over the case and described the litigation as “novel and potentially calamitous”.
The president wrapped up his three-hour cabinet meeting, which included a series of questions from reporters.
The president kept his answer short and snappy when asked about Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s comments that Russia wasn’t interested in a long-term peace deal with Ukraine.
“Doesn’t matter what they say. Everybody’s posturing. It’s all bullshit,” Trump said.
The president said that “it takes two people to tango … you got to get them together,” when asked about the prospect of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also said that “Zelenskyy isn’t exactly innocent either”.
He added:
It’s no different than the worst wars that I’ve ever seen, and if I can stop it – because I have a certain power or a certain relationship – I had a very good relationship with President Putin, very, very good. That’s a positive thing again.
Trump says he’d ‘like to be asked’ to send troops into blue cities
The president just said that Democratic governors should call him after witnessing the administration’s federal takeover of the police and deployment of the National Guard.
“I’d say, ‘President Trump, we need your help’,” he said. “This is going to be the safest place on earth. And we’ll do the same thing in Chicago. But I’d like to be asked, as opposed to just going in and doing it. Because you know, when you go in and do it, then they start screaming, ‘oh, he shouldn’t be here’.”
Trump went on to say that he “would love” for Illinois governor JB Pritzker to call him for help. “We will stop that problem in Chicago in two months, maybe less, two months, we’ll stop it,” he said. The president added that he hoped other Democratic governors and mayors would ask him to send troops to their cities to quell, what he characterizes as, rampant crime. Ultimately, Trump said that he would have “no problem” intervening if he thinks the country was “in danger”.
For their part, Democratic leaders across the country have pushed back against the president’s threats to send military into blue cities and states. “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me – not time or political circumstance – from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
Donald Trump is now saying that Democrats are “against crime prevention”, and conflates this argument with trans athletes playing sports. It’s been a common refrain from the president when asked about Democrats’ pushback to his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.
He goes on to say that “crime will be the big subject of the midterms and will be the big subject of the next election”.
Trump says he’s prepared for legal fight from Lisa Cook
The president says he’s prepared for a lawsuit from Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook – whose lawyer said that she plans to pursue legal action challenging the president’s move to fire her.
“She seems to have had an infraction, and she can’t have an infraction,” Trump said. “She’s in charge of, if you think about it, mortgages, and we need people that are 100% above board, and it doesn’t seem like she was.”
Cook has not been charged with any crime. Her counsel, Abbe Lowell, said earlier that Trump had “no authority” to remove her from the Fed’s board of governors. Lowell added that the president’s attempt to fire Cook was “based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis”.
Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting has been going on for more than two hours. The president was scheduled to meet with Indiana Republicans at 1pm ET today, but there’s not been any word on if/when that might take place later.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth says the military, America’s largest employer, is now “merit-based, gender neutral, color blind”.
This, he claims, is a marked difference from the previous administration, which was managed by “social justice”, “political correctness” and “divisive ideologies seeping into the ranks and changing how well we do to our job”.
He goes on to express support for the president’s suggestions this week to rename the Department of Defense as the ‘Department of War’:
George Washington started the Department of War because he wanted us to win our war … Our founders didn’t want endless foreign entanglements. They didn’t want endless contingencies and deployments. They wanted an empowered military, that was the handcuffs were taken off to fight, to win, and then bring those troops home.
Bessent also praised the president for “restoring confidence in government” when it comes to Trump’s targeting of the Federal Reserve.
“The Federal Reserve’s independence comes from a political arrangement between itself and the American public. Having the public’s trust is the only thing that gives it credibility,” Bessent said. “You, sir, are restoring trust to government. You are weeding out the waste, fraud and abuse and the old ways of doing things are not good enough.”
Bessent says tariff revenue could reach ‘half a trillion’ a year
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent just projected that revenue from tariffs could reach half a trillion dollars a year.
“On the international front, you have leveled the international trading system whereby countries took advantage of us, and that’s over,” Bessent said, praising Donald Trump.
He added:
I had been saying we were running at a rate of $300bn a year. You chastised me for saying that that number is too low. And as usual, you’re right. We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we’re going to see a bigger jump from August to September. So, I think we could be on our way to well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion dollar number.
Elon Musk’s Doge put sensitive social security data at risk, whistleblower says
Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) copied and uploaded sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially risking the safety of hundreds of millions of Americans and violating federal privacy laws, according to a whistleblower complaint filed on Tuesday.
The complaint from Charles Borges, the chief data officer at the SSA, alleges that Doge staffers effectively created a live copy of the entire country’s social security data from its numerical identification system database. The information is a goldmine for bad actors, the complaint alleges, and was placed on a server without independent oversight that only Doge officials could access.
“These actions constitute violations of laws, rules, and regulations, abuse of authority, gross mismanagement, and creation of a substantial and specific threat to public health and safety,” the complaint states.
The whistleblower complaint, first reported by the New York Times, is one of the most high-profile insider accounts of how Doge staffers have allegedly taken confidential government information and used it for their own ends, at great risk to the public. The database that Doge officials allegedly uploaded to the cloud contains highly personal information about hundreds of millions of US citizens and residents. It includes details such as names, place and date of birth, race and ethnicity, names of family members, phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers.
The Social Security Administration denied that the sensitive data had been compromised and stated that it takes all whistleblower complaints seriously.
Trump administration will seek death penalty in DC homicide cases, president says
As part of his vision for “a crime-free city” Donald Trump has just said that his administration will be seeking the death penalty for homicide in Washington DC.
He told the cabinet meeting:
Anybody murders something [sic] in the capital, capital punishment. Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty. And that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it.
I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but we have no choice.
So in DC – states are going to have to make their own decision – but if somebody kills somebody … it’s the death penalty, OK?
