Financial markets worldwide have been rattled by President Donald Trump's announcement that he's firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, an unprecedented move and sharp escalation in his effort to exert greater control over what has long been considered an institution independent from day-to-day politics.
But Cook said she's not leaving, and her lawyer said Tuesday that she'll sue to keep her job. “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” Cook said in an emailed statement. “I will not resign.”
Trump said in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform that he is removing Cook effective immediately because of allegations by one of his supporters that she committed mortgage fraud. Market reaction was swiftly negative — economists have long preferred independent central banks because they can more easily take unpopular steps to fight inflation and ensure the economic stability that is key to business confidence.
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Chef Jose Andres publicly mocks Trump’s claims about D.C. restaurants
Celebrity chef and local D.C. icon Jose Andres is pushing back against Trump’s claim that his federal takeover and law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital has resulted in a “boom town” for the city’s restaurants.
Trump on Monday rejected reports that the flood of federal agents and National Guard troops had hurt D.C. restaurant and nightlife industry.
“Half the restaurants closed, because nobody could go, because they were afraid to go outside,” Trump said. “Now those restaurants are opening and new restaurants are opening up. It’s like a boomtown.”
Andres, in a Tuesday post on X, directly and sarcastically addressed Trump, saying: “I understand why you are confused...all your time in DC you haven’t eaten ONCE outside the White House or your own hotel. I’ve lived here for 33 years, and it’s a flat out lie that half the restaurants have closed because of safety...but restaurants will close because you have troops with guns and federal agents harassing people...making people afraid to go out.”
The Spanish-American restaurateur and founder of the global food charity World Central Kitchen and Trump have exchanged public hostilities in the past.
Scavino to become White House personnel chief
Trump is tapping Dan Scavino to lead the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
Scavino is one of Trump’s longest serving aides and is currently a deputy chief of staff. The current head of the personnel office, which oversees vetting and selection of administration employees, is Sergio Gor, whom Trump is nominating as ambassador to India.
“Dan Scavino is one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest serving advisors. There is nobody better to ensure the President’s Administration is staffed with the most qualified, competent, and America First-driven workers,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “There is much still to be done and Dan’s leadership will ensure the highest quality, most dedicated workforce ever.”
Orthodox archbishop apologizes to those hurt by his meeting Putin
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, right, and Alexei (John Trader), Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America Diocese of Alaska talk after laying flowers to the graves of Soviet soldiers who died during World War II at Fort Richardson National Cemetery, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
President Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin may be receding into the past, but controversy continues to reverberate over an American archbishop’s exchange of friendly greetings and gifts with Putin.
Alaska Archbishop Alexei has issued a statement apologizing to “those who have experienced pain, suffering, or confusion” because of his meeting with Putin. Alexei did not apologize for the meeting itself, however, which took place just after the summit on Aug.15 in Anchorage.
Alexei’s superior in the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, said the archbishop failed to inform him as he should have of his plans to meet Putin. Tikhon said the meeting doesn’t represent the church’s position, which he said has been to “clearly and repeatedly condemn the aggression against Ukraine.”
Critics said Alexei conferred legitimacy on the Russian president by meeting with Putin, who faces accusations of war crimes from the International Criminal Court. Ukrainian-American bishops called the meeting “a betrayal of the Gospel of Christ.”
Trump finally wraps up his marathon Cabinet meeting
When it was all said and done, the president met with his top advisers for nearly three and a half hours.
Trump began with about 45 minutes of solo comments on everything from crime in Washington to windmills -- then let each Cabinet member speak.
The president then took questions from reporters before finally wrapping up. As time wore on, networks that had been carrying the event live cut away to other programing. At several points, Trump and other officials even joked about journalists in the White House press pool who had to hoist boom mics to capture what was said during proceedings that lasted so long.
“It’s government. It’s an open government. That’s what we are,” Trump said when he was finally ready to conclude. “We haven’t made too many mistakes. We maybe will.”
Federal Reserve says it will ‘abide by any court decision’
In its first comment about Trump’s attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, the Fed said that Cook “has indicated through her personal attorney that she will promptly challenge this action in court and seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability” to serve on the Fed’s seven-member board of governors.
Cook is likely to seek an injunction blocking the president’s attempt to fire her, legal experts say.
The Fed also noted in its statement that Congress had set long, staggered 14-year terms for Fed governors such as Cook and added that governors “may be removed by the president only ‘for cause.’”
“Long tenures and removal protections ... serve as a vital safeguard, ensuring that monetary policy decisions are based on data, economic analysis, and the long-term interests of the American people,” the Fed also said.
Trump bristles at Putin’s stalling push for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy
“It doesn’t matter what they say,” Trump said as a reporter directed a question to his special envoy Steve Witkoff during Monday’s marathon Cabinet meeting about the Russia-Ukraine war. “Everybody’s posturing,” he added, using an expletive to describe it.
Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, made it clear last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until the Ukrainians agree to some of Moscow’s long-standing demands to end the conflict. Lavrov’s comments came after Trump earlier in the week declared a breakthrough in the conflict, saying that he was arranging for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet.
Trump, after intercepting the question for Witkoff, then turned to his envoy and asked if he had a “different answer” to offer.
Witkoff added, “I agree with you, sir.”
Trump denies weaponizing the government against his political opponents in Fed fight
Asked if his administration was using the government to target his political opponents given his attempt to oust a Federal Reserve governor over alleged mortgage fraud, Trump bristled.
“No,” he said, adding of mortgage records: “They’re public.”
The president then chastised reporters for not digging into accusations of mortgage fraud, saying, “If you did your job properly, we wouldn’t have problems like Lisa Cook.”
Trump frequently decries the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for using his government to unfairly prosecute conservatives.
But Trump is attempting to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud that haven’t been proven.
Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade ICE arrest has lost a bid to drop charges
The judge’s arrest and prosecution has highlighted the Trump administration’s clash with state and local authorities who resist its sweeping immigration crackdown.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan argues she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution.
However, a U.S. district judge disagreed on Tuesday, saying “there is no firmly established judicial immunity barring criminal prosecution of judges for judicial acts.”
Prosecutors say Dugan escorted a man living in the country illegally and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back door.
The judge’s decision can still be appealed.
Attorneys for Dugan said Tuesday that if the case goes to trial, they expect show Dugan “simply treated this case like any other in front of her courtroom.”
Trump defends call for issuing more visas to Chinese students
The president is standing by his call for surging visas for Chinese students to attend U.S. universities and colleges.
Trump on Monday faced rare pushback from supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, when he said he would allow 600,000 Chinese students into American universities and colleges. That would be more than twice the number of Chinese students enrolled in the 2023-24 school year.
Asked about his comments on increasing student visas for Chinese students, Trump stood his ground.
“I think it’s very insulting to say students can’t come here because they’ll go out and start building schools and they’ll be able to survive it,” Trump said. “But I like that their students come here. I like that it that other countries students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly and it wouldn’t be the top colleges. It would be colleges that struggle on the bottom.”
Trump predicts midterm elections will turn on crime and says GOP will prevail
Trump put on his political prognosticator’s hat when a reporter asked him about crime in Washington, DC.
He portrayed Democrats as favoring crime because some have pushed back strongly against his threats to send the National Guard into cities like Baltimore and Chicago.
“They’re against crime prevention,” Trump said. “You can’t do that.”
“I think crime will be the big subject of the midterms and will be the big subject of the next election,” he predicted, meaning the 2028 presidential election. “And I think the Republicans are going to do really well.”
Trump is suggesting he may take more action to chip away at Fed’s independence
The president was asked about his months of criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and said, “He’s been the wrong guy.”
Trump said Powell “hasn’t done the job,” adding that he thinks the Fed chair is “not a bad person, but I do think he has motives.”
While he didn’t elaborate, Trump said the economy would improve if Powell leaves his post. He also hinted that he might attempt more changes to Fed leadership, saying, “We’ll have a majority shortly” among the leadership ranks of the central bank.
The Fed operates independently, but Trump already has taken the extraordinary move of trying to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
Trump wishes Swift and Kelce ‘a lot of luck’
Before asking Trump a serious question about visas for international students from China, a reporter said she just had to ask Trump about his reaction to the engagement of Swift and Kelce.
“I wish them a lot of luck. I think he’s a great player, and he’s a great guy, and I think she’s a terrific person,” Trump said.
Back in 2024 after Swift endorsed Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, the then presidential candidate posted online, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Lutnick loses his train of thought
Showering the president and each other with compliments is a huge part of these Cabinet, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick got so carried away with the effusive praise that he didn’t finish explaining his point.
While talking about grants that the federal government gives colleges and universities, he turned to Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reference her department’s lawsuit against Harvard and began to praise her saying, “It’s so much fun to work with everyone here that we just have a blast.”
“We’re having fun together. This is the greatest Cabinet working for the greatest president,” Lutnick said, but he never got back on track to finish his thought about university patents.
Trump says he’s ready to go to court to try and carry out his ordered firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Cook responded to Trump saying he’d terminate her by preparing a court challenge against what she called the president’s “illegal action.”
Asked about that during his Cabinet meeting, Trump was dismissive, offering, “You always have legal fights.”
“She seems to have had an infraction, and you can’t have an infraction,” he added of Cook.
He said “we have some very good people” in mind to replace Cook if she’s removed.
Trump has long sought to expand capital punishment
Trump’s idea to seek the death penalty for all murders in Washington is part of a long push by the Republican to expand capital punishment.
Most killings in Washington, however, are prosecuted under local law in D.C. Superior Court, where the stiffest punishment prosecutors can seek is life in prison since D.C. has outlawed the death penalty.
Prosecutors can bring murder charges in federal court in certain circumstances. And federal law spells out which crimes are eligible for the death penalty, such as the killing of a federal law enforcement official. It would be practically challenging for federal prosecutors to charge every D.C. murder and the killings might not fit under federal law in all cases.
For example, the Justice Department federally charged and are considering seeking the death penalty for the man accused of killing two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum.
Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history, and the president has spoken frequently of expanding executions.
Rubio, who has many jobs, jokes that this Labor Day is the ‘most meaningful’ of his life
And it isn’t because Marco Rubio is secretary of state and working for Trump, as he joked at the Cabinet meeting.
“This is the most meaningful Labor Day of my life as someone with four jobs,” Rubio said. The room erupted in laughter.
In addition to his full-time job as America’s chief diplomat, Rubio is also the interim national security adviser, acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and acting archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Brazil’s president slams ‘insolence and insults’ in an indirect swipe at Trump
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made the remarks during a cabinet meeting in capital Brasilia on Tuesday, after the U.S. leader enforced a 50% tariff hike on Brazilian imported goods that came into effect earlier this month.
“We don’t accept insolence and insults, or petulance from anyone,” Lula told his ministers, who, like Lula himself, were wearing “Brazil belongs to Brazilians” blue hats. “We are willing to sit at the table on equal terms. What we are not willing to do is be treated as if we were subordinates.”
Trump has tied the tariff to the trial of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss.
Trump, who was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, appears to identify with Bolsonaro.
Cabinet members joke about ‘fitness challenge’
One recurring line throughout Trump’s marathon Cabinet meeting is the fitness challenge to show off the physical prowess of the secretaries.
“Pete and Bobby” -- Hegseth at the Pentagon, Kennedy at HHS -- are active participants, but the leader is actually Scott Turner, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and former football player.
The challenge includes doing 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups in less than 10 minutes.
But there are certainly other fitness tests other than those.
“I don’t think Pete or Bobby could hold these sticks for two and a half hours,” quipped Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, referring to the audio and camera operators in the Cabinet Room, who had been holding up their equipment for about two hours at this point.
Police investigate first homicide in DC since Aug. 13
A nearly two-week stretch without a homicide in Washington has ended.
Police in Washington are investigating after a 31-year-old D.C. man died in a shooting shortly after midnight on Tuesday.
Trump has highlighted the streak of days without a homicide amid his takeover of the city’s police, at one point falsely claiming that it’s “the first time in anybody’s memory” that Washington went a week without a murder.
The district previously had similar periods without homicides this year, including 16 days from February to March.
The total number of reported crimes in Washington has dropped about 17% since Aug. 13 as compared to the 13 days prior to the takeover, though criminologists generally caution that data from short time frames is inconclusive.
Does Trump’s Cabinet know Taylor Swift is engaged?
It’s been less than 30 minutes since Taylor Swift announced her engagement to football player Travis Kelce, but Trump’s Cabinet meeting has been going on for nearly an hour and a half and there’s no indication anyone has clued the president and his secretaries in on the news.
It doesn’t appear that anyone has their phones on the table and so they may not have seen the news.
Trump has repeatedly said this year that Swift is “no longer hot.”
Trump calls for capital punishment for murder in nation’s capital
Trump said, “we’re going to be seeking the death penalty” in Washington, D.C., if someone kills someone in the nation’s capital.
D.C. and nearly two dozen states, about half of the country, have abolished the death penalty.
Trump said capital punishment is a “very strong preventative.”
The Death Penalty Information Center says studies have found no “meaningful evidence” that using the death penalty deters crime.
What causes autism? RFK Jr. promises September answer.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Trump to expect a “announcements” in September around his quest to find the cause of autism, the developmental disorder that affects the brain.
It’s unclear what scientific studies will be used to support Kennedy’s findings.
The health secretary had promised the president in April that he would undertake a “research effort” using “scientists from around the world” to determine the cause of the disorder, but the health department has not yet publicly launched such an effort.
Trump talked for 45 minutes
He’s finally relented the floor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his first Cabinet member to speak during the meeting.
