BREAKING: Key Administration Official Resigns

A top economic official at the Federal Reserve resigned on Friday, the latest sign of turmoil amid an ongoing turf feud between its chair, Jerome Powell, and President Donald Trump over the future of interest rates.

Adriana Kugler, a Biden appointee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, submitted her resignation to President Trump, the bank announced in a press release. She plans to return to Georgetown University as a professor in the fall.

“It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” Kugler wrote in her letter to Trump. “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’s term was set to expire at the end of January 2026, CNBC noted. She joined the seven-member board in September 2023 after being selected by former President Joe Biden.

Her resignation affords Trump a rare opportunity to appoint a member who will likely be at odds with Powell and his reluctance to lower interest rates amid an uncertain economic outlook. Kugler was a permanent voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the nation’s rates on everything from mortgage loans to credit cards.

Powell wished Kugler well in her return to Georgetown, saying, “She brought impressive experience and academic insights to her work on the Board.”

Her resignation is effective August 8.

President Trump remains furious at Powell, who has rebuffed his calls to lower rates by pointing to unsteady inflation data and business hiring that slowed last month. During a tour of the Fed’s new facility, which has been beset by cost overruns, Trump used the opportunity to humiliate Powell in front of the cameras by suggesting the extra bills are higher than Powell has admitted publicly.

Christopher Waller, another Governor of the Federal Reserve, has broken with Powell, saying the timing is right to lower interest rates for Americans.

“I think we’re in the position that we could do this as early as July,” Waller remarked on CNBC last month. “That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not.”

Waller’s comments came shortly after the committee voted to postpone rate decreases, the fourth straight time they have refused to do so since December 2024.

“If you’re starting to worry about the downside risk [to the] labor market, move now, don’t wait,” he added. “Why do we want to wait until we actually see a crash before we start cutting rates? So I’m all in favor of saying maybe we should start thinking about cutting the policy rate at the next meeting, because we don’t want to wait till the job market tanks before we start cutting the policy rate.”