WSJ editorial board torches Trump for 'frivolous' feud: 'Are we really doing this again?'
The Wall Street Journal editorial board let loose its frustration as President Donald Trump keeps trying to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
In a Thursday op-ed, the conservative-leaning board chimed in on Trump's attempts to remove Cook from the Federal Reserve. Trump tried to summarily fire her last year after accusing her of mortgage fraud, but the Supreme Court overturned the move in June. The White House sent a letter to Cook on August 5 that let her know that Trump "is considering removing you," and The Journal sounded exhausted by the ongoing feud.
"Are we really doing this again?" The Journal's op-ed opened. "It's no secret that these claims about Ms. Cook's mortgage are a pretext, dug up by MAGA chihuahua Bill Pulte."
The law says that Federal Reserve Governors may be fired only "for cause," The Journal noted. However, the Supreme Court only ruled against Cook's firing because it determined she is "entitled to notice and some opportunity to respond," The Journal added.
"The Supreme Court declined for now to take a position on the substance," The Journal editorial board wrote. "After Ms. Cook gets due process, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, courts may 'assess the validity and sufficiency of such charges.'"
The op-ed warned that the Supreme Court left an opening for the case to come back as Trump v. Cook II, and that case seems more likely after Cook's attorneys responded to the White House's August 5 letter on Wednesday.
Cook's letter threw Trump's mortgage fraud allegations back at him by pointing out that Trump acquired two Florida homes seven weeks apart in 1993, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche entered into primary residence mortgages for multiple homes just as she did.
"Ms. Cook's response also makes an argument about not throwing stones while living in glass second houses," The Journal wrote. "But Mr. Trump is never one to back down from a frivolous political fight—over the official names of bodies of water, how that Sharpie marker ended up on that hurricane map, or whose inauguration crowd was the biggest. Soon the Justices might be gathering for oral argument in Trump v. Cook II."