Biden-Appointed Fed Governor Resigns As Trump Calls For Interest Rate Cuts

Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Friday, just two days after the Fed voted to keep interest rates steady for a fifth-straight meeting, further angering President Donald Trump.

Kugler, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden and joined the Board of Governors in September 2023, said that she will be taking a job as a professor at Georgetown University in the fall, CNBC reported. The Fed Governor did not say whether recent pressure on the central bank policymakers had played into her decision.

“It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” Kugler wrote. “I am especially honored to have served during a critical time in achieving our dual mandate of bringing down prices and keeping a strong and resilient labor market.”

Kugler was supposed to serve on the board until the end of her term in January of 2026. Over the past few months, she has supported keeping interest rates steady, pointing to uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs. Powell praised Kugler following her resignation, saying, “She brought impressive experience and academic insights to her work on the Board.”

Kugler’s resignation opens up the door for Trump to nominate another nominee for the board, where his two previous appointees, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, have been pushing for interest rate cuts. Waller and Bowman dissented from the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady, arguing that delaying rate cuts could damage the U.S. economy.

The president is also a few months away from nominating a new Fed Chair to succeed Jerome Powell when his term ends in May 2026. Waller and Bowman are both viewed as potential picks to take over as Fed Chair.

Trump has repeatedly slammed Powell after the Fed voted again on Wednesday to keep interest rates in the 4.25% to 4.5% range. The president suggested on Friday that if Powell “continues to refuse” to lower interest rates, the board “SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!” The next meeting to discuss interest rates is scheduled for September 16-17, and Powell gave no indication that the central bank will be ready to lower rates when they meet again.

“We don’t do that in advance,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We’ll be taking that information into consideration and all the other information we get as we make our decision.”

Trump said on Wednesday that he heard the Fed will lower interest rates at its next meeting.

“Right now, there’s no inflation. Everybody thought there would be,” Trump said. “All we have is billions of dollars of cash flowing into our country.”