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Donald Trump doesn’t like Jerome Powell. And he was the one who chose him to lead the Federal Reserve, the Fed, in 2018. However, the Republican is convinced that the Fed chairman has sided with the Democrats and is determined to do little less than destroy the American economy, first by raising rates at a speed never seen in the last 40 years and, later, by resisting making the first cut, which seems likely to come no later than after the summer at the earliest. Although back in February he accused him of wanting to lower rates to help the Democrats.

No matter what Powell does, the relationship between the two is broken and Trump announced weeks ago his intention to remove the Fed chairman. But he later changed his mind, and in an interview with Bloomberg promised to keep him at the helm of the central bank… Although the conversation was published in mid-July, it was recorded before Trump was assassinated and his popularity soared to unprecedented levels, increasing his chances of winning the election.

Whatever his final decision, Trump already has a list of candidates to replace Powell. Although removing the Fed chairman is not easy, there are mechanisms to do so.

Of course, everything depends on the need for the Republican Party to win the presidential elections by a large majority, taking control of the Senate. This scenario was unthinkable three weeks ago, but now the fight between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is close.

Trump has prepared the list of substitutes, which he consults with his political allies at the Republican National Convention. Although it is a complex process.

With no vacancy on the central bank’s board, it would first be forced to appoint one of the current governors, with Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman being the leading candidates, since both are Republicans. This would be an interim appointment pending a vacancy on the board.

The US president can always push for a governor to resign and vacate his post, paving the way. Everything will depend on the power that the future occupant of the White House has at that time.

Candidates

Kevin Warsh, former Federal Reserve Board member.

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Among the names Trump is considering to replace Powell is Kevin Warsh, who was already on the shortlist in 2017 and served on the Fed board between 2006 and 2011. Although he began his career at Morgan Stanley, he soon opted for a more institutional and political profile, becoming a member of the Republican Party. He is currently a professor at Stanford and an advisor to the Congressional Budget Office.

Arthur Laffer, economist advisor to Ronald Reagan.

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Also on the short list is Arthur Laffer, former economic advisor to Ronald Reagan and inventor of the so-called Laffer Curve, which is studied in all business schools. The theory is that there is a tax rate that can maximize revenue collection and, once that threshold is exceeded, tax revenues fall even if taxes are increased.

The problem with Laffer’s appointment is his age, as he is 83 years old and would take over the reins of the central bank after turning 84, for a four-year term.

The third candidate is Kevin Hassett, former chairman of Trump’s economic council from 2017 to 2019. He was also an advisor to John McCain in the 2000 presidential primaries and is the author of several economics and finance textbooks. In 1999, he predicted that the Dow Jones would reach 36,000 points within five years. Although the index has surpassed that level, the reality is that it took more than two decades to achieve it.

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With any of these three names, Trump would secure control of the Federal Reserve, since all three economists are within the Republican Party sphere.In addition to being able to influence the country’s monetary policy, it would also be responsible for shaping new regulations to adapt capital requirements in American banking to Basel III.

This is one of the most controversial issues and has sparked a real war between the big banks and the Federal Reserve in recent months.

Trump’s position is aligned with the interests of the banking sector, which is seeking a regulation that increases the new capital requirements as little as possible. The Republican could leave them as they are now, compared to Powell’s proposal, which involves raising them by between 3% and 5%, after lowering its initial plan, which contemplated a 20% increase, which unleashed the fury of the sector.

Republican Donald Trump will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border later this week, as part of an effort by his campaign to increase political pressure and steal the spotlight from Kamala Harris. as Democrats celebrate their presidential nomination at their national convention in Chicago.

Trump will travel to Montezuma Pass, Arizona, on Thursday, the same day Harris is scheduled to give her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The border visit is part of a weeklong campaign that will take the former president to several key states, after weeks in which he held only one or two events a week. The Trump campaign and its staff’s roster of activities also includes daily news conferences, which aides hope will represent a stark contrast to Harris’ campaign, which has yet to hold an official news conference since securing the Democratic nomination.

The ramped-up campaign agenda comes as Trump’s campaign has been losing ground to Harris, who has made slight gains in national polls and fundraising. Trump’s advisers said they believe forcing the vice president to participate in unscheduled meetings and policy debates would ultimately be detrimental to her campaign.

“While Harris dodges questions from the press and attempts to backtrack on her extreme policies like the New Green Scam and bans on American energy, President Trump and Senator Vance will take their “America First” message to voters in battleground states across the country.”Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

Harris has occasionally taken questions from reporters and has committed to a full interview later this month.

In Arizona, Trump is expected to meet with the Border Patrol union and members of the sheriff’s department and participate in a briefing accompanied by officials including the county sheriff and Brandon Judd, who is the former chairman of the National Border Patrol Council. He will then participate in a walk along the border before taking part in a listening session with ordinary Americans and making remarks to the press, according to campaign officials.

Before heading to the border, Trump is expected to hold a rally on Monday in Pennsylvania, a key debate state. Harris will tour the state by bus over the weekend before heading to Chicago for the convention.

On Tuesday, while Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, will attend an event in Milwaukee, Trump will deliver a speech on “crime and security” in Howell, Michigan. On Wednesday, the day Walz is scheduled to give his acceptance speech, Trump will hold a national security rally in North Carolina. And after his trip to the border, Trump will attend a rally in Glendale, Arizona.

Harris’ entry into the race has upended a 2024 contest that was already unprecedented in its nature, with Trump running as the first former president to be convicted of a felony, surviving a failed assassination attempt at an outdoor rally and being forced to switch sides after Biden was ousted from the ticket by a Democratic pressure campaign.

Recent polls have shown a tight race in a campaign in which Trump was previously a consistent front-runner. A poll released Sunday shows Harris leading Trump by a narrow margin in a head-to-head matchup, 49% to 45%, among registered voters nationwide. The same poll, by the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos, showed a dead heat in early July when President Joe Biden was the candidate.

In Southport, in the north-west of England, eight minors and two adults who were at a club for a music and dance activity were attacked by a 17-year-old teenager with a knife, resulting in three girls aged 6, 7 and 9 being killed and the others seriously injured. From the moment the terrible crime became known, social networks – maliciously – dedicated themselves to spreading false information, claiming that the suspect was a Muslim refugee who arrived in the country illegally on a boat.

Violent riots by anti-immigrant groups in the United Kingdom immediately broke out, and since British law does not allow the identity of minors under 18 to be revealed, the disinformation echoed among the hordes of protesters who did not calm down even when the judge made the name public to neutralize the effects of the disinformation. It was Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a British man born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents.

The violence spread to major cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Bolton and London, where anti-immigrant protesters not only continued to chant “Enough is enough – Stop the boats” banners, but also attacked mosques and several hotels in northern towns housing hundreds of asylum seekers, who, in the midst of terror, reinforced the doors of their rooms with refrigerators and furniture before being transferred.

Patriotic Alternative, the Defence League and other extremist organisations, as well as anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movements, shared photos of the rampaging horde (many with Nazi tattoos). Counter-marches in support of refugees took place in several cities in defence of diversity, around 2,000 people in Bristol prevented a group of extremists from attacking the offices of refugee lawyers, and in Newcastle around 1,000 protesters, most of them Muslim, stood outside a migration services centre that had been targeted by the far right.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quick to point out that this was not a protest that had gotten out of hand: “This is a group of individuals who are absolutely determined to commit violence” and that is why he has formed an “active force” of special agents to counter it. This is how the immediate identification of those involved in the incident and those who foment violence online is taking place.

More than 500 people are being prosecuted and sentenced by the courts with “substantial sentences”. This decisive and rapid response by the British criminal justice system was praised by Starmer, who considered it “a powerful message to anyone involved, whether directly or online”.

British Conservatives David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, in their determined bid for Brexit, with the intention of recovering the votes of the far right, claimed that migrants would decrease significantly, although the Office of Statistics (ONS) indicated in 2023 that net migration – people arriving minus those leaving – in 2022 reached 606,000 individuals; that is, 164,000 more than in 2021 and practically triple the net migration of 2019.

So it seems that the answers that the British are looking for are not available to malicious politicians and influencers.