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Trump news at a glance: president hints he already has replacement in mind for Fed governor Lisa Cook

Donald Trump has suggested he already has a replacement in mind for the Federal Reserve governor he is trying to force, even as Lisa Cook said she would sue the administration over her removal.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting lasting more than three hours on Tuesday, the US president said: “We have some very good people for that position. I think, maybe in my own mind, I have somebody that I like.”

Trump said he would consult Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.

Trump is reportedly considering the possibility of naming his economic adviser Stephen Miran to serve out the remainder of Cook’s term, which does not expire until 2038. Earlier this month, Trump nominated Miran to serve for a much shorter term, as a replacement for another member of the Fed’s board, Adriana Kugler, a Biden nominee who was due to be replaced in five months.

Cook has said that she will sue to keep her position as a governor of the independent central bank and her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called Trump’s move to fire her “illegal”.

Here is the key Trump administration news of the day:

Fed governor to sue over Trump attempt to fire her

The Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will sue the Trump administration over its bid to fire her over unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud, her attorney has said.

Donald Trump announced he was firing Cook on Monday night, in an extraordinary move that marks the latest escalation in the US president’s attack on the central bank’s independence.

But Trump has “no authority” to remove her from the Fed’s board of governors, Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued in a statement to reporters, saying: “His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”

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Trump says he wants ‘nothing less than $500m’ from Harvard

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration “wants nothing less than $500m from Harvard” as a condition for restoring billions of dollars in federal funding to the Ivy League university.

“Don’t negotiate with them, they’ve been very bad,” Trump told his education secretary, Linda McMahon, in a cabinet meeting.

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Texas sued for allegedly stripping Black voters of political power

Texas’s redrawn congressional maps have drawn a lawsuit from the NAACP, accusing the state of committing a racial gerrymander with its maps that strip Black voters of their political power.

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Court tosses Trump lawsuit against Maryland judges over US deportations

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the Trump administration earlier in the summer against all 15 judges serving on Maryland’s federal district court – a case that opposed pausing some deportations from the state.

In a 37-page ruling, US district judge Thomas Cullen of Virginia’s western district – nominated and confirmed to his position during Donald Trump’s first presidency – wrote that “any fair reading of the legal authorities cited by defendants leads to the ineluctable conclusion that this court has no alternative but to dismiss”.

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