Trump should fire Jerome Powell
By Ryan Silverstein
Real Clear Wire
Legacy media have been obsessing over whether President-elect Donald Trump can remove Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve (the Fed). Jerome Powell recently came out and stated he would serve out his term – which ends in 2026. Further, Chairman Powell claims any attempt by President Trump to remove him is not “permitted under the law.” Unfortunately for Chairman Powell, President-elect Trump can remove him – and he should – to make the federal bureaucracy respond to democratic pressures once again.
Article II, Section I, Clause I of the Constitution explicitly vests only our president with “the executive power,” meaning all agencies exercise executive power at the president’s behest. When all executive agencies derive their power from the president, how can the chairman of an executive agency believe the president cannot remove him?
Chairman Powell’s belief stems from a Supreme Court case Morrison v. Olson. In that case, the Supreme Court held that Congress can limit the president’s removal power by requiring “good cause.” In support of this ruling, the justices created a functionalist test to determine whether Congress’ restriction on removal power substantially impedes the president’s ability to perform his constitutional duties. Morrison dramatically expanded restrictions on the removal power to essentially all officers of the United States – including members of independent agencies who derive their power from the executive branch.
Morrison drastically limited the president’s ability to remove embedded bureaucrats and, consequently, resulted in a bureaucracy completely disconnected from the public’s will. The COVID-19 pandemic shows us exactly what occurs when experts are disconnected from democratic pressures and desires. First, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, supported mask mandates, dismissed the lab leak theory (which is now confirmed), and supported lockdowns which destroyed the livelihoods of millions of Americans. Second, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abused the rulemaking process to impose an unconstitutional eviction moratorium allowing squatters to terrorize property owners. Finally, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration created an unconstitutional rule forcing millions of Americans to choose between keeping their livelihood or taking a COVID-19 vaccination – violating the basic medical concept of informed consent.
Clearly these agencies, which are run by individuals who cannot be fired without “good cause,” ignored the American people’s plight in order to push their technocratic agenda. The end result has been a decline in public trust of core American institutions.
Justice Antonin Scalia foresaw this abuse, and wrote in his dissent from Morrison that one of the main checks against abuses of power by any branch is the political remedy: “[U]ltimately, there is the political check that the people will replace those in the political branches (the branches more “dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution,”) who are guilty of abuse.”
The election of Donald Trump is a case-in-point example of this political check. Trump won the 2024 election in a landslide, notably winning voters who are concerned about the state of our democracy. Americans voted for Trump because they are tired of disconnected bureaucrats imposing top-down mandates with little regard for the public’s opinion. Instead, many Americans want federal bureaucrats to be responsive and respect their values.
When he is inaugurated in January 2025, President-elect Trump will exclusively wield the executive power. He was elected with a broad mandate to govern, and he should exercise that mandate by firing Chairman Powell. While Powell will litigate the issue, the Supreme Court will likely agree with Trump. Last term the Supreme Court issued decisions restoring democratic accountability to administrative agencies. Most notably, the court decided Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (overturning four decades of Chevron deference) and SEC v. Jarkesy (restoring Americans’ right to a jury trial when agencies impose financial penalties). Clearly, Scalia’s specter of respecting democratic processes has been embraced by the Supreme Court. Congressional limits on the president's removal power is the last insulator between administrative agencies and public pressures.
President Trump should wield his exclusive executive power, fire Jerome Powell, and give the Supreme Court the chance to restore democratic oversight to an administrative state which has long bemoaned public input. Doing so will increase public faith in our democratic institutions and force “independent” administrative agencies to be more responsive to the public’s needs and desires.
Ryan Silverstein is a J.D. candidate at Villanova University and a fellow with Villanova’s McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy. His work has previously appeared in the New York Daily News, Post & Courier, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.