Trump May Cross the Line No POTUS Has in 112 Years… Back to Jekyll Island’s Secret Blueprint

By Stocks News   |   1 week ago   |   Stock Market News
Trump May Cross the Line No POTUS Has in 112 Years… Back to Jekyll Island’s Secret Blueprint

Back in 1910, a bunch of rich guys met on a private island to save capitalism… or hijack it, depending on if you ask me. No, seriously. Picture it: Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia. A fancy little resort where you could shoot ducks, sip whiskey, and accidentally rewire the entire American financial system. That’s exactly what happened when Senator Nelson Aldrich, Paul Warburg, and execs from J.P. Morgan and National City Bank showed up pretending to be on a “hunting trip.” (Their code names didn’t help the whole “we’re not plotting anything sinister” suspicions.)

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Instead of blasting mallards, they drafted the bones of what would become the Federal Reserve Act… a plan to prevent another financial panic like the one in 1907. The public was clueless. And Congress was also in the dark. Anti-bank and anti-monopoly sentiment was running hot, and the last thing these guys wanted was to be outed as the financial puppet-masters behind the curtain. By 1913, the Fed was born. And for 112 years, no sitting U.S. President has ever fired a Fed chair.

And that’s where Trump’s looking to make some more history. Because of course. Donald Trump, never one to follow norms (or keep grudges short), is reportedly shopping around a draft letter firing current Fed Chair Jerome Powell… while casually asking House Republicans, “Should I do it?” Like he’s polling whether to order Chick-fil-A or his favorite go-to (McDonald’s).

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Don’t mistake this for another Trump headline to dunk on during your morning doom-scroll. This could be a legit shake-up of one of the most powerful economic institutions in the world. Markets definitely noticed. When word of the firing draft leaked, stocks slipped on the news (before Trump denied the rumors he’d actually do it).

So what’s the lowdown? Trump says Powell is failing to cut rates fast enough. But that’s old news. The new angle is that Trump is now claiming Powell mismanaged a $2.5 billion Fed building renovation… complete with alleged rooftop gardens, VIP dining rooms, and a taste level somewhere between Versailles and the Taj Mahal.

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Now of course, Powell denied all the above during Senate testimony. “No water features. No VIP elevators. No marble orgies,” basically. He even asked for an independent inspector general review. Still, Trump’s looking at this as his “smoking gun”... a way to boot Powell for cause, which is the only legal pathway to firing a Fed chair before their term ends. Legally, it’s murky. Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act says a Fed board member can be removed “for cause,” but doesn’t define what “cause” actually means. Historically, it’s meant corruption or gross misconduct… not disagreeing over how much you love zero interest rates.

And yes, Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026, but he could stay on the board until 2028 unless physically dragged out of the Eccles Building by a Secret Service agent (wearing earplugs to block out Trump yelling “you’re fired!” one last time).

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Surprisingly, Wall Street has some mixed feelings about this potential shakeup. Jamie Dimon warned this move could “destabilize” the Fed. Others think Trump’s just trying to stir up some controversy to push Jerome out without having to fire him. Either way, you don’t need a CFA to know this kind of drama makes markets twitchy. In classic Trump fashion, he said: “I’m not planning to fire Powell… unless he has to leave for fraud.” That’s like saying, “I’m not planning to break up with my girlfriend… unless she cheats or I get bored.”

So will he do it? Maybe. Maybe not. But the fact that it’s on the table at all (112 years after the Fed was born in secret on a beach) is peak 2025 energy.

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One century ago, bankers drafted the Federal Reserve while hiding from the public. Now? Trump might fire its chair on X because he didn’t like the price of the curtains in the break room (but seriously come on Jerome, $2.5 billion? What are you building? An amusement park to rival Disney?).

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in McDonald’s and Walt Disney as mentioned in the article.

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