Fed TACO

If Fed Chair Jerome Powell gets a hankering for Tacos today, we know why

Donald Trump hates Jerome Powell, which puts Powell in a non-exclusive club. Donald Trump hates a lot of people. Am I on that list?

Jerome Powell, of course, is the Chair of the Federal Reserve. Last night, TACO met with about a dozen House Republicans and asked their opinions on whether or not he should fire Powell. Trump even showed them a letter he wrote firing Powell. He just hasn’t sent it yet.

Asked today by the press in the Oval Office about this letter and the imminent firing of Powell, Trump said it’s very unlikely.

Did Trump just TACO Jerome Powell? Trump earned the nickname TACO from his tariff threats, where he threatens to place tariffs on nations, then backs off, and threatens again, then backs off. Wall Street has started to ignore Trump’s tariff threats, which created “Trump Always Chickens Out.” It’s the acronym for TACO.

Calling Trump TACO upsets him greatly, but he’s still chickening out with the tariffs.

Speaking of tariffs, in June, our nation had its first surplus in nine years. Wow! The surplus is $27 billion, though the national debt is still over $36 trillion (year to date is over $1 trillion). MAGAts are celebrating this, praising Trump, and calling him a genius for this surplus they think was paid by other nations, forgetting that tariffs are taxes. Trump raised taxes on Americans, and it’s the American taxpayer from where this $27 billion surplus came from.

Republicans, do not ever play a shell game because you will lose. On the other hand, I just created a new game, Republican. Come play with me.

Back to Powell, Trump spent his first term, and all of 2.0 so far, howling for Powell to cut interest rates. Trump hates Powell and said he was “surprised” Powell had been nominated to be chair of the Federal Reserve, saying ‘‘I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.” I am not surprised that Trump is so stupid.

Somebody check on Grandpa TACO because President Joe Biden did NOT put Jerome Powell in the chair of the Fed. If President Biden didn’t do it, then who did?

Donald Trump appointed Jerome Powell to the Fed in 2017. I know. That was a long time ago, and who remembers 2017? Biden reappointed him, which probably means Powell is the only person Trump ever appointed that remained independent and did a decent job.

Can you imagine the cries of dementia Republicans would give if Biden had said that? They’d be screaming for the 25th to be enacted.

But it doesn’t matter who appointed Powell, whether it was Biden or Trump, because Trump can’t fire him without cause. This is what the Supreme Court indicated, but that might change if Trump actually does try to fire him.

If Trump wants to fire Powell, he can’t fire him just because he doesn’t like his policies. It would be like when House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Director Alexander Mayorkas without him having committed a crime.

Trump doesn’t have the authority to fire Jerome Powell, just like he doesn’t have the authority to revoke Rose O’Donnell’s citizenship.

To fire Powell, Trump needs cause, like Powell breaking the law or something like that, or acting like one of Trump’s other appointees, like Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, or Kristi Noem. To fire Powell, Trump will have to make some shit up, like claiming Jerome Powell is on the Epstein Client List.

Oops, we’re not supposed to be talking about the EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST because Trump doesn’t like us talking about the EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST. So guys, stop talking about the EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST.

Creative note: For some reason, I always thought the Federal Reserve was based in New York City. Maybe I thought it should be on Wall Street. But I checked that today, and no…it’s in DC. If nothing else, that allowed me to insert one of my favorite Easter eggs in today’s cartoon.

The sippy cup usually has a new message in every new Trump cartoon, but this one might stick around for a while.

Music note: Someone suggested I take a break from The Beatles and listen to George’s All Things Must Pass, which I’ve never heard entirely. So, that was today’s music to color by. This cartoon is simpler than most that I’ve drawn over the past week, so I finished coloring before I heard the entire album. I’ll continue to go through it tomorrow. It was a great suggestion.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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