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House votes down latest war powers resolution to block Trump from putting troops in Venezuela

January 22, 2026 / 5:36 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — The House defeated the latest war powers resolution on Thursday in response to President Trump’s recent military operation in Venezuela.

Democrats continue to hammer the issue and have repeatedly tried to block further military action in the South American country, but the efforts have lacked enough GOP support.

Two Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure, which narrowly failed in a 215 to 215 vote.

Republicans had to hold the 2-minute vote open for more than 20 minutes until Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas arrived to cast the tie-breaking vote, which defeated the measure. The delay in closing the vote caused an outcry from Democrats.

“Close the vote!” Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan of New York yelled as it was on the brink of passage without Hunt’s vote. “This is serious s***!”

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The vote comes a week after the White House peeled off GOP support for a similar measure in the Senate that also narrowly failed to advance. Two Senate Republicans who flipped their votes to help sink the resolution said Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave them assurances that the president would seek congressional authorization if the administration plans to put U.S. troops in Venezuela.

The House resolution, introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, “directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force.”

Two prior attempts to limit Mr. Trump’s authority to strike Venezuela and suspected drug-smuggling boats in the region fell short in December, before this month’s U.S. operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The first measure from last month — with the broader focus of removing U.S. armed forces from “hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere” — had the support of two Republicans, while two Democrats voted against it. The second resolution focused on “hostilities within or against Venezuela.” Three Republicans voted in favor and one Democrat opposed it.

McGovern’s latest resolution had a similar outcome. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska both backed it. The two also supported the previous unsuccessful efforts.

Bacon pointed to a fake image shared by Mr. Trump earlier this week, showing the president, vice president and secretary of state planting an American flag on Greenland. The image included a sign that claimed Greenland as a U.S. territory as of 2026.

“When you ask me why I voted the way I did on the War Powers Resolution later this week… here’s one reason,” Bacon wrote.

When the Senate’s efforts to rein in future military action in Venezuela had short-lived momentum, Massie said he was hopeful that more Republicans in the House would change their stance. Days earlier, the U.S. had captured Maduro in an operation that came as a surprise to Congress. Mr. Trump then asserted the U.S. was running the country, worrying some Republicans who had previously defended the president’s authority to carry out strikes on dozens of boats allegedly smuggling illicit drugs.

Any GOP criticism of the strikes has mostly quieted as attention has shifted to Mr. Trump’s crusade to acquire Greenland.

Democrats have indicated they plan to keep forcing votes on the issue, especially after Mr. Trump and members of his administration have threatened military intervention against other countries, including Greenland, Iran, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba.

“We will be relentless in pressing this issue and pressing our colleagues,” Rep. Maggie Goodlander, a New Hampshire Democrat, said Thursday.

特朗普警告欧洲：若抛售美国资产 将面对“重大报复行动”

发布时间：2026年1月23日 00:15 / 来源：联合早报

1月22日，美国总统特朗普出席在达沃斯举行的世界经济论坛年会。 （彭博社）

美国总统特朗普警告，如果欧洲国家抛售美国资产以回应他的关税威胁，他将采取“重大报复行动”。

彭博社报道，特朗普星期四（1月22日）在达沃斯出席世界经济论坛时接受福克斯商业新闻频道采访说：“我们手中握着所有的牌，如果他们真这么做，那就做吧。但如果真发生这种事，我方会有重大报复行动。”

丹麦养老基金AkademikerPension本周宣布，计划抛售1亿美元（约1亿2800万新元）美国国债；格陵兰的SISA养老金公司也说，正在考虑是否应继续投资美国股票。

美国财政部长贝森特本周淡化了丹麦方面的抛售行动，称自己“完全不担心”。

“丹麦对美国国债的投资，就像丹麦本身一样，无关紧要，”贝森特星期三在达沃斯说。“他们卖美国国债已经卖了很多年。”

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ICE detains four Minnesota children including five-year-old, school officials say

By Rich Matthews and Aaron Mcnicholas
January 23, 2026 1:01 AM UTC Updated 2 mins ago

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minnesota, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. immigration officials have detained at least four children, including a five-year-old, from the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, according to school officials and a lawyer for the family, who challenged the government narrative of the five-year-old’s detention put forward by Vice President JD Vance.

The Ecuadorean boy and his father – both in the country legally as asylum applicants – were whisked off to a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, said Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family who is attempting to gain their release.

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Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District, told a press conference that armed and masked ICE officers had apprehended four students as of this week, listing two 17-year-olds and a 10-year-old in addition to the five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos.

“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids,” Stenvik said.

“The onslaught of ice activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children.”

The detentions form part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has deployed about 3,000 federal law enforcement officers to the Minneapolis area, where people have been on edge since an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, 37, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, on January 7.

Heavily armed federal officers have pursued suspects they say are dangerous criminals and immigration violators, while protesters unnerved by the show of force have responded with their own observer patrols, blowing whistles to warn people of ICE raids while voicing displeasure with Trump’s escalation.

The Department of Homeland Security said Liam’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, was in the country illegally but did not provide details.

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Item 1 of 4 ICE agents stand next to a boy, who a witness identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old that school officials said was detained in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 20, 2026. Rachel James/via REUTERS

[1/4]ICE agents stand next to a boy, who a witness identified as Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old that school officials said was detained in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 20, 2026. Rachel James/via REUTERS [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

Liam, wearing a blue hat and a Spider-Man backpack, watched as masked agents took his father from the driveway of their home after the two returned from preschool on Tuesday, according to witnesses. Officers then attempted to use the boy as bait to lure his mother out of the house, at least two witnesses said.

Vance told a press conference on Thursday that immigration officers were pursuing Liam’s father, who ran away, leaving officers no choice but to take the abandoned boy.

“What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien?,
” Vance told a press conference during a visit to Minneapolis to show support for ICE.

However, school officials, an adult from the family home and neighbors all offered to take the boy, only to be denied by ICE officials, according to witnesses including Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights school board. Granlund said school officials are authorized to take custody of a child in the absence of a parent.

The boy’s mother was inside the home, but her husband instructed her to remain inside, most likely to avoid detention herself, Granlund told reporters. When asked if the boy was being used as bait, Granlund said, “Correct.”

“The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken and our hearts are shattered, and honestly, at the end of the day, children should be in school with their classmates,” Granlund said.

The officers put the child in the back seat of a black SUV and sped away, said Rachel James, a Columbia Heights city council member who also witnessed the events.

“I can’t imagine what was going through Liam’s mind, but I can tell you what I saw on his face. He was frozen and paralyzed,” James told Reuters on Thursday. “He was not crying, but he looked so scared.”

Prokosch denied that Liam’s father was in the U.S. illegally and said Minnesota records did not show any criminal history for the family. They were awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, he said.

Reporting by Rich Matthews and Aaron McNicholas in Columbia Heights, Minnesota; Additional reporting by Doina Chiucu in Washington and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Daniel Trotta; editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama, Deepa Babington and Michael Perry

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House amends funding package to repeal law allowing senators to sue for $500k, jamming upper chamber

January 22, 2026 / 12:09 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — The House approved an amendment to a must-pass funding package Thursday that would repeal a controversial provision that allows senators to sue for $500,000 if federal investigators search their phone records without their knowledge.

In a unanimous vote, the House approved an amendment to the rule that governs the package of funding bills, which the lower chamber is expected to vote on later Thursday ahead of a deadline to avert a government shutdown.

The Senate included the provision in a legislative package to bring an end to the government shutdown in November. It requires service providers to notify senators if their phone records or other data are seized or subpoenaed. Senators are entitled to $500,000 for each violation, and the law also applies retroactively to 2022 — allowing the senators whose phone records were seized during special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the 2020 election to sue the federal government.

Lawmakers in the House have expressed frustration over the provision for months, and the House unanimously passed a bill later in November to roll it back. But Senate GOP leaders have expressed little willingness to do away with the provision.

When one Democratic senator sought unanimous consent to approve the House-passed measure to repeal the provision in November, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, objected. Graham is one of the senators whose phone records were subpoenaed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune joined Graham on the floor to propose that the law be adjusted to “address the question that has been raised about personal enrichment.” He said that, with the change, any damages awarded under the law would be “forfeited to the United States Treasury.” But the change has not been made.

With the surprise amendment vote on Thursday, lawmakers in the House are effectively jamming the Senate by including the repeal of the controversial provision in a spending package that the House is expected to pass and send over to the upper chamber. And with just over a week before the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, and the House set to be away on recess next week, the Senate will have no option but to approve the package — or prompt a shutdown.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican who chairs the House Rules Committee, introduced the amendment. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on the House floor that “it’s about damn time.”

Federal judge questions Trump’s authority to build White House ballroom

January 22, 2026 at 5:32 p.m. EST / The Washington Post

Judge Richard Leon focused on whether the Trump administration’s use of private donations to fund the $400 million project was an “end run” around Congress.

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President Donald Trump holds up a model of an arch while delivering remarks in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 15, during a fundraising dinner for a new White House ballroom. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

By Dan Diamond

and

Jonathan Edwards

Diamond and Edwards have been covering the White House’s ballroom project. They are reachable securely on Signal at dan_diamond.01 and jle.11.

A federal judge on Thursday questioned whether the Trump administration is legally allowed to build President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, asking Justice Department lawyers to cite a law that gives him the power to do so.

“Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?” said Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush. Historic preservationists sued the Trump administration in December, demanding a halt to the project until it undergoes reviews.

Leon criticized the Trump administration for an “end run” around congressional oversight by soliciting private donations to build the planned $400 million ballroom, characterizing the administration’s argument to rely on Interior Department authority as a “Rube Goldberg contraption.”

Leon also repeatedly pressed Justice Department lawyers to explain how Trump had the authority to rapidly demolish the East Wing annex and construct a planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. He mocked the administration’s comparison of the project to a swimming pool built in 1975 by then-President Gerald Ford that was funded by private donations.

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“You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing?” Leon said. “C’mon. Be serious.”

Leon said that he did not plan to rule on the matter in January but could issue a decision in February. The White House has said it plans to begin aboveground construction of the ballroom in April.

Leon said that regardless of how he rules, he expects the case to be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and even the Supreme Court.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group charged by Congress with helping preserve historic buildings, sued the Trump administration in December, arguing that the White House had failed to undertake legally required reviews as well as obtain authorization from Congress before demolishing the East Wing.

“The president is a temporary resident of the White House. He’s not the landlord,” said Tad Heuer, a Foley Hoag lawyer representing the National Trust, calling for a halt to construction.

“He’s a steward,” Leon replied.

Justice Department lawyers argued that Congress had authorized the White House to pursue changes to its campus by setting aside several million dollars in funding and allowing the Interior Department to solicit gifts for national parks. Leon said that the congressional authorization was narrow and limited to matters such as White House maintenance.

Heuer agreed with Leon that congressional approval for a few million dollars a year to update an HVAC system or make minor repairs does not amount to blessing a project along the lines of a $400 million ballroom building.

“Congress does not hide elephants in mouse holes,” he told the judge.

Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer arguing the case, told Leon that construction could not be halted, citing national security reasons.

“It can’t be divided out that way,” Roth said.

The hearing, which was attended by Joshua Fisher, a White House senior official helping oversee the ballroom, and other administration officials, came hours after Trump’s handpicked arts commissioners met to discuss the planned ballroom. That panel’s new leader raised several questions about its size and design but indicating he favors the controversial project.

“It’s an important thing to the president. It’s an important thing to the nation. We all know it,” said Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the newly elected chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts. He added that there was a clear need to create a permanent space where presidents could host large events. “I think that that is our charge … [to]take care of what the president wants us to do.”

The Commission of Fine Arts is one of two federal panels set to review the proposed ballroom’s design, effect on the city’s historic views and other aspects of urban planning. The White House has said it hopes to obtain approval from the panels in the next two months, a far faster review process compared with other large projects that have sometimes needed years.

Both the Commission of Fine Arts and the other panel, the National Capital Planning Commission, are now led by Trump appointees after the president removed members named by the Biden administration. The Commission of Fine Arts’ new members include James McCrery II, who served as Trump’s first architect on the planned White House ballroom, and Cook, a developer and designer who served on the commission during the first Trump administration before being removed by President Joe Biden.

Shalom Baranes, chief architect of the White House ballroom project, on Thursday largely reprised a presentation he gave to the planning commission earlier this month, detailing the nearly 90,000-square-foot building and the 22,000-square-foot ballroom inside.

The Trump administration argued that administrations have long needed a larger space to entertain VIP guests like foreign dignitaries and cultural icons. Josh Fisher, director of White House management and administration, told commissioners that the ballroom will help Trump and future presidents carry out their policy agendas by presenting the country in the best possible light.

“It is a stage for democracy,” Fisher said. “It is where alliances will be honored, where cultural achievements will be recognized and where the United States will present itself to the world.”

The arts commissioners raised several questions about the planned project. Cook pressed Baranes on whether the ballroom’s pediment — the triangular arch above the planned portico — could be reduced.

“It is immense,” he said, comparing it to the much larger Treasury building next door and warning of the visual impact as people look upon the White House from the south side of the building. “It’s immense.”

Baranes said the design was Trump’s preference.

Mary Anne Carter, another newly named fine arts commissioner who also chairs the National Endowment for the Arts, questioned Baranes on whether the ballroom offered sufficient protection for the president and asked for updates at future meetings. The arts panel’s purview has historically focused on design matters, not security.

“We all want it to be beautiful,” Carter said. “We also want this president and future presidents to be safe and secure.”

Trump, who has faced assassination attempts, has said he wants the ballroom to be equipped to host a presidential inauguration.

McCrery, having worked on the ballroom, recused himself from the presentation.

The other two new arts commissioners — Roger Kimball, a conservative art critic, and Matthew Taylor, an artist and filmmaker whom Trump installed at the National Endowment for the Humanities last year — did not ask questions.

The Commission of Fine Arts collected several dozen public comments that were overwhelmingly critical of the planned project, a CFA official told the new commissioners.

Baranes said that more details about the project, including 3D drawings, would be coming soon. He also told the panel that he had not begun designing a planned second-story addition to the West Wing colonnade, which White House officials have proposed as a way to balance the two buildings flanking the executive mansion. Whether the colonnade gets built will depend on the results of ongoing structural assessments, he said.

At Thursday afternoon’s hearing, Leon asked whether the ballroom’s dimensions could be reduced, including by lowering its height.

“Would it be possible, architecturally, to go smaller?” Leon asked Heuer, who said any changes to the building’s height could be difficult to implement. Heuer also argued that lowering the building’s height without shrinking its width could result in a shorter, squatter building that would be more visually disruptive than the planned ballroom.

After the hearing, about two dozen White House and Justice Department officials gathered for several minutes in the court hallway.They dispersed when a Washington Post reporter approached.

Freezing temps, heavy snow expected for millions of people in central and eastern US this weekend

By Rich McKay and Julia Harte
January 22, 2026 5:43 PM UTC Updated 7 hours ago

Item 1 of 4 Pedestrians walk during cold weather in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

[1/4]Pedestrians walk during cold weather in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Storm to impact 150 million Americans with snow, rain, frigid cold
• Agricultural benefits and risks for crops due to storm
• Local preparations include emergency declarations and shelter provisions

Jan 22 (Reuters) – Travel disruptions, power outages and frigid temperatures are expected to affect 150 million Americans on Friday and through the weekend as a massive storm clobbers the U.S. with heavy snow and freezing rain from the Central Plains to the East Coast, the National Weather Service said.

The storm, which could impact nearly half the country’s population, will bring up to 20 inches (50.8 cm) of snow in the Appalachians and West Virginia mountains, while most people living in the eastern U.S. could face dangerous slick or frozen roads and potential power outages from ice-laden trees and branches falling and snapping power lines, officials said.

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“With the extreme cold in the North and the storm, half of all Americans are under some form of weather advisories,” said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Agricultural meteorologists said the heavy snow and ice should benefit dormant winter wheat crops in Oklahoma, where 23% of the state is in severe drought, according to a weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released on Thursday.

But plunging temperatures in the storm’s wake could put wheat fields without protective snow cover “at risk of cold-weather injury,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a daily weather note on Wednesday. Livestock will face stressful conditions due to ice and snow in the Southern Plains and extreme cold in the north, the USDA said on Thursday.

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New York City, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., could receive 4 to 10 inches (10 to 25 cm) of heavy, wet snow starting on Saturday, Hurley said, with temperatures in the low 20s Fahrenheit (minus 5.5 C) in D.C., with Boston seeing a low of 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 C).

LOCAL PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY

Throughout the storm, New York state was expected to be under a “Code Blue,” which requires social service providers to extend shelter hours and ensure the homeless have access to them.

In Boston, Anh-Phi Tran said he was prepared to cater a weekend event with his locally beloved “Zinneken’s” Belgian waffle food truck despite the forecast.

“It’s hard, but I have a space heater and of course the waffle ovens to keep me warm,” said Tran, who has worked in the food truck for about 11 years.

Chicago will be under a deep freeze, with a low of 2 degrees below zero F on Friday and Saturday and dangerous wind chills of 30 below zero (minus 34 C) .

Space heaters have been flying off the shelves all week at J.C. Licht Ace Hardware River North in Chicago, according to manager James Martin.

Chicagoans know how to deal with extreme cold, said Martin, a Chicago native. “We move fast and we dress in layers and layers and more layers. Then we ask, ‘Why do we still live here?'”

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency, activating extra personnel and equipment to help control traffic, monitor power outages, rescue people trapped by the storm, and more. Abbott urged Texans to “remain weather-aware, check DriveTexas.org before traveling, and heed the guidance of state and local officials.”

The storm is expected to clear out of most areas by late Sunday or early on Monday. The extreme cold from an Arctic blast of air from Canada will bring a high temperature of only 5 degrees below zero on Saturday in Fargo, North Dakota.

Farther south, the main storm hazard will be ice, weather forecasters said. From Central Virginia to Northern Texas, the Southeastern states could receive accumulations of up to a half-inch of ice.

Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Julia Harte in New York and Emily Schmall and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Editing by Donna Bryson, Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis

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Democrats demand Trump officials disclose potential ‘profiteering’ from Venezuela oil dealings

2026-01-22T12:01:00.916Z / CNN Politics

By Sarah Ferris

Updated 9 hr ago
Updated Jan 22, 2026, 11:09 AM ET
PUBLISHED Jan 22, 2026, 7:01 AM ET

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The Nave Photon crude oil tanker is docked at Freeport Marine Terminal II on January 14, 2026 in Freeport, Texas. The vessel chartered by Chevron transported oil from Venezuela to the United States.

Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images

A group of Senate Democrats are demanding to know whether President Donald Trump’s inner circle stands to profit from Venezuelan oil sales after CNN recently reported details of the administration’s private talks with the nation’s biggest oil companies.

In a letter sent Wednesday night to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, 14 Democrats are urging senior officials to “immediately disclose any financial interests” they have in companies dealing with the oil industry in Venezuela. They point to the administration’s recent sales pitch to those companies, dangling private security guarantees as they seek to convince oil executives to invest in the politically unstable country, citing CNN reporting.

The calls for transparency — led by Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, among others — come as Democrats increasingly scrutinize the White House for what they say could amount to possible insider trading. Democrats like Schiff have also previously taken aim at senior Trump officials for offering inadequate financial disclosures about their own stock-buying after taking part in market-moving tariff discussions.

The senators are also raising concerns about Trump’s close connection to a top oil executive at Vitol – the oil giant that secured the first sale of American-controlled Venezuelan oil, after that same employee attended a White House meeting on the subject earlier this month. That executive, John Addison, is a top donor to Trump’s presidential campaign.

“Given the urgency of the matter and the enormous risk of profiteering and corruption, the Administration has a heightened obligation, beyond existing financial disclosure requirements, to clarify for Congress and the American public whether and to what extent the financial ties described above exist and the concrete measures implemented, if any, to prevent the personal financial enrichment of the President and Administration officials,” they wrote in the letter, first obtained by CNN.

And, hinting at future action by Democrats should they seize back power in Washington, they added: “Such financial ties and any corrupt dealings or profiteering, moreover, will be subject to ongoing scrutiny and may lead to future accountability measures.”

Other Democrats who signed onto the letter Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber’s minority leader, as well as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Andy Kim of New Jersey and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Internet defrosts jokes as Cruz is seen departing Texas ahead of winter storm

January 22, 2026 at 11:52 a.m. EST / The Washington Post

The senator once dubbed “Flyin’ Ted” for a Cancún trip during a Texas storm was spotted en route to California as more harsh weather approaches. His office said it was a planned work trip.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Jan. 8. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

By Adela Suliman

There’s a storm brewing in Texas — and on social media. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is again being mocked online after being photographed on a flight away from his home state as it braces for an intense winter storm.

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US Supreme Court sees risk in Trump running roughshod over Fed

January 22, 2026 2:32 PM UTC / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court justices during arguments over President Donald Trump’s bid to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook seemed to embrace the idea that the central bank’s independence to set monetary policy must be preserved and that eroding it would present real-world economic risks.

If there was possible harm in how the court proceeds, the justices suggested during ​the arguments on Wednesday, it would be in leaving the door open too wide for presidents – now or in the future – to remove monetary policymakers and in doing so disrupt more than a century of ‌letting central bankers make judgments about interest rates free of political pressure.

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That concern was summarized most directly by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh during an exchange with Solicitor General D. John Sauer, tasked with arguing why Trump should be allowed to remove Cook over alleged misstatements made on mortgage applications before she was appointed to the Fed.

“Your position that there’s no judicial review, no process required, no remedy available, a very low bar for cause that the president alone determines – I mean, that would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Kavanaugh said.

“We have to be aware of what we’re doing and the consequences of your position for the structure of the government,” Kavanaugh told Sauer.

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Making the removal of a Fed governor too easy gives the president an incentive for a search-and-destroy mission to “find ‌something and just put that on a piece of paper – no judicial review, no process, nothing. You’re done,” Kavanaugh said.

TRUMP’S PERSISTENT DEMANDS

Looming over the case are Trump’s persistent demands that the ​Fed cut interest rates faster and further than the central bank under the leadership of current Chair Jerome Powell has been willing to do in the face of lingering inflation. Trump has stated that he plans to install a like-minded new Fed chair when Powell’s term in the post expires in May.

Trump cited the unproven allegations of mortgage fraud as justification for firing Cook, who was appointed as a Fed governor in 2022 by Democratic former President Joe Biden with a term running until 2038. ‍Cook has called this allegation a pretext to oust her over monetary policy differences.

Trump’s Justice Department this month launched a criminal investigation against Powell concerning a project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed headquarters in Washington. Powell similarly has called this investigation a pretext for Trump to gain more influence over the Fed and monetary policy.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who like Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump, pressed Sauer on the economic consequences of allowing Cook’s removal to stand. Barrett noted that economists had filed briefs with the court saying doing so ⁠could trigger a recession.

“How should we think about the public interest in a case like this?” Barrett asked.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, accompanied by lawyer Abbe Lowell, looks on outside the U.S. Supreme Court, as Supreme Court justices consider U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to fire her, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

Sauer responded by saying the stock market’s rise after Trump announced his firing of Cook in August undercut predictions of doom.

“Well, I’ll interrupt you there ‍to say that I don’t want to be in the business of predicting exactly what the market’s going to do,” Barrett said. “I don’t want to be responsible for quantifying that risk. I’m a judge, not an economist. But if there is a risk, doesn’t that counsel … ‌caution on our ‌part?”

LONG-TERM OUTCOMES

Economists regard it as a well-established principle that central banks that operate free from short-term political pressure make decisions producing better long-term economic outcomes, tempering inflation even if it means high interest rates that can slow economic growth, raise unemployment and make life uncomfortable for politicians seeking reelection.

Trump has taken an expansive view of presidential powers since returning to office 12 months ago. The justices in the Cook case are weighing the value of Fed independence against the Trump administration’s arguments that it is the president’s interests – and by extension the public’s – that would be damaged by leaving federal agency officials in place who he wants removed.

The Supreme Court has backed Trump in numerous cases over the past year decided on an emergency basis, including allowing him to ⁠remove various officials from federal agencies while their legal challenges ⁠to his actions play out.

But the Fed’s role as central ​to the U.S. and global financial system, as well as the fact that presidents as a matter of course do not directly decide monetary policy, put the Cook case on a somewhat different footing.

“It’s not as if keeping her is going to thwart any right he has to run the department – because he has none,” liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

The judge who blocked Trump from immediately firing Cook said that his action without notice or a hearing likely violated her right to due process under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court ‍is considering the Trump administration’s request to lift that judge’s order while Cook’s legal challenge to the president’s action continues to play out.

“We know that the independence of the agency is very important, and that that independence is harmed if we decide these issues too quickly and with not due consideration,” Sotomayor added.

Allowing the lower courts to thoroughly examine all the issues, Sotomayor said, makes “the most sense to the public’s confidence and to the world’s confidence about the due process of law.”

“Why shouldn’t we wait until the end of this case, where all the issues are clear and where we ​make a final decision as to whether she should have been removed or not?” Sotomayor asked.

A Supreme Court ruling is expected by the end of June ‍but could come sooner.

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Will Dunham