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BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.

Huang was asked about a possible “B30A” semiconductor for artificial intelligence data centers for China while on a visit to Taiwan, where he was meeting Nvidia’s key manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world’s largest chip maker.

“I’m offering a new product to China for ... AI data centers, the follow-on to H20,” Huang said. But he added that “That’s not our decision to make. It’s up to, of course, the United States government. And we’re in dialogue with them, but it’s too soon to know.”

Such chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

The B30A, based on California-based Nvidia’s specialized Blackwell technology, is reported to operate at about half the speed of Nvidia’s main B300 chips.

Huang praised the the Trump administration for recently approving sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China after such business was suspended in April, with the proviso that the company must pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government on those sales. Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, was told to pay the same tax on its sales of its MI380 chips to China.

As part of broader trade talks, Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China approved more permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the U.S., while Washington lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines. After lobbying by Huang, it also allowed sales of the H20 chips to go through.

Huang did not comment directly on the tax when asked but said Nvidia appreciated being able to sell H20s to China.

He said such sales pose no security risk for the United States. Nvidia is also speaking with Beijing to reassure Chinese authorities that those chips do not pose a “backdoor” security risk, Huang said.

“We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors. There are no such things. There never has. And so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” he said.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, recently posted a notice on its website referring to alleged “serious security issues” with Nvidia’s computer chips.

It said U.S. experts on AI had said such chips have “mature tracking and location and remote shutdown technologies” and Nvidia had been asked to explain any such risks and provide documentation about the issue.

Huang said Nvidia was surprised by the accusation and was discussing the issue with Beijing.

“As you know, they requested and urged us to secure licenses for the H20s for some time. And I’ve worked quite hard to help them secure the licenses. And so hopefully this will be resolved,” Huang said.

Unconfirmed reports said Chinese authorities were also unhappy over comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting the U.S. was only selling outdated chips to China.

Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the U.S. strategy was to keep China reliant on American chip technology.

“We don’t sell them our best stuff,” he said. “Not our second best stuff. Not even our third best, but I think fourth best is where we’ve come out that we’re cool,” he said.

China’s ruling Communist Party has made self-reliance in advanced technology a strategic priority, though it still relies on foreign semiconductor knowhow for much of what it produces.

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AP Videojournalist Taijing Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

More packages of frozen shrimp potentially affected by radioactive contamination have been recalled, federal officials said Thursday.

California-based Southwind Foods recalled frozen shrimp sold under the brands Sand Bar, Arctic Shores, Best Yet, Great American and First Street. The bagged products were distributed between July 17 and Aug. 8 to stores and wholesalers in nine states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and Washington state.

The products have the potential to be contaminated with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope that is a byproduct of nuclear reactions.

Walmart stores this week recalled packages of Great Value frozen raw shrimp sold in 13 states because of potential radioactive contamination.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert after federal officials detected Cesium-137 in shipping containers sent to four U.S. ports and in a sample of frozen breaded shrimp imported by BMS Foods of Indonesia.

The FDA advises consumers not to eat the recalled products. Traces of Cesium-137 are widespread in the environment including food, soil and air. The primary health risk is through long-term, repeated low-dose exposure, which can increase the risk of cancer.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk’s X has reached a tentative settlement with former employees of the company then known as Twitter who’d sued for $500 million in severance pay.

The parties disclosed the deal in a Wednesday court filing asking for a scheduled Sept. 17 hearing in the case to be postponed. The San Francisco federal appeals court on Thursday agreed to postpone the hearing so that both sides could finalize the settlement agreement.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The proposed class action lawsuit by former Twitter employees Courtney McMillan and Ronald Cooper, who said the company failed to pay them and other fired workers severance they were owed.

Musk took over the social media platform in 2022 and let thousands of employees go, eliminating entire teams dedicated to trust and safety, human rights and making the site accessible to people with disabilities. Other lawsuits, including one filed by Twitter executives including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are still pending.

The billionaire’s approach to gutting Twitter’s workforce served as a template for his months-long leadership of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as it cut tens of thousands of federal workers earlier this year.

An email announcing a “deferred resignation offer” to federal workers, promising pay through September without having to work, was titled “Fork in the Road,” echoing a similar email Musk sent to the Twitter workforce in 2022.

Musk’s drawn-out legal battles with more than 2,000 former Twitter workers were also a precursor to the court battles the Trump administration is now fighting over federal downsizing, though the circumstances are different.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rallying on Friday toward its best day in months after the head of the Federal Reserve hinted the cuts to interest rates that investors and President Donald Trump crave so much may be on the way.

The S&P 500 leaped 1.6%, and its first gain in six days has it on track to top its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 916 points, or 2.1%, and was above its last all-time high, which was set in December. The Nasdaq composite was up 2%, as of 1:25 p.m. Eastern time.

“Ka-Powell” is how Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, described the reaction to Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The Fed isn’t going to be the party-pooper.”

The hope among investors had been that Powell would hint that the Fed’s first cut to interest rates of the year may be imminent. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give a boost to the economy and to investment prices, even if they risk worsening inflation at the same time.

Trump has angrily been calling for lower rates, often insulting Powell while doing so. And a surprisingly weak report on job growth this month pushed many on Wall Street to assume cuts may come as soon as the Fed’s next meeting in September.

Powell encouraged them on Friday after saying he’s seen risks rise for the job market. The Fed’s two jobs are to keep the job market healthy and to keep a lid on inflation, and it often has to prioritize one because it has just one tool to fix either.

But Powell also would not commit to any kind of timing. He said the job market looks OK at the moment, even if “it is a curious kind of balance” where fewer new workers are chasing after fewer new jobs. Inflation, meanwhile, still has the potential to push higher because of Trump’s tariffs.

In sum, Powell said that “the stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance.”

Treasury yields tumbled in the bond market as bets nevertheless built that the Fed would cut its main interest rate in September. Traders see an 87% chance of that, up from 75% a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.26% from 4.33% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, sank to 3.68% from 3.79% in a notable move for the bond market.

On Wall Street, stocks of smaller companies led the way. They can benefit more from lower interest rates because of their need to borrow money to grow. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index surged 3.9% toward its best day since April.

Homebuilders jumped on hopes that easier interest rates could encourage more people to buy homes. Lennar, PulteGroup and D.R. Horton all rose at least 5%.

Travel companies, meanwhile, climbed amid hopes that easier interest rates could help U.S. households spend more. Norwegian Cruise Line rallied 6.3%, Delta Air Lines flew 6.6% higher and Caesars Entertainment rose 6.3%.

Shares of Nio, a Chinese electric-vehicle maker, that trade in the United States leaped 16.8% after it began pre-sales of its flagship premium SUV model, the ES8.

Nvidia rose 1.8% to trim its loss for the week. The company, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move in to artificial-intelligence technology, has seen its stock struggle recently amid criticism that it and other AI superstars shot too high, too fast and became too expensive.

Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration. The chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

In stock markets abroad, Germany’s DAX returned 0.3% after government data showed that its economy shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter compared with the previous three-month period.

Indexes rose across much of Asia, with stocks climbing 1.4% in Shanghai and 0.9% in South Korea.

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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

Microsoft$MSFT ( ▲ 0.19% ) is a tech company most of us take for granted, but it’s been a strong and steady market performer, up over 135% in the past five years, and up 20% this year alone. With big tech now pouring hundreds of billions into AI, BBTW editor Peter Green spoke with Motley Fool Asset Management’s chief investment strategist, Bill Mann, about why we still tend to gloss over the country’s most diversified mega-cap tech firm, and why that’s always a mistake.

Bill Mann:If you look at what Microsoft has done for the last 40 years, it has been one of the 10 largest companies in the U.S., which is an extraordinary streak, and it speaks to a longevity and a creativity that goes on and on. Still, from time to time, we make the mistake of underestimating Microsoft. When they came up with “FANG” (an acronym for Facebook$META ( ▼ 1.49% ) , Amazon$AMZN ( ▼ 0.93% ) , Netflix$NFLX ( ▼ 0.78% ) and Google$GOOGL ( ▲ 0.21% ) ), Microsoft wasn’t even included, but it is the most internally diverse of the mega-cap tech companies. In an era of incredible economic restructuring in this country around AI and cloud computing, it’s become the safest of the tech plays. Even in an era like this, you can trust Microsoft to have figured out where opportunities lie across the tech stack.

Their cloud computing business, Azure, has been incredible. It’sgrowing at 34%. That’s been a huge new business for them. In enterprise security, there are three main players, Microsoft, Sentinel One$SENTINELONE ( 0.0% ) , and CrowdStrike$CRWD ( ▼ 1.01% ) , controlling most of the market. That’s a $30 billion business for them, and it’s something that almost feels like it’s side-of-desk, but it’s a huge area of opportunity and advantage for them. And there’s Microsoft Co-Pilot, an AI-powered companion designed to assist with various tasks, at $30 a seat per month, $20 billion in additional revenue two years from now.

The first is that they’ve been generally pretty cooperative with OpenAI, but, as we saw last week, OpenAI is contemplating a bid for Chrome. For OpenAI to make a move to make itself independent, that can be harmful to Azure because they’re pretty well integrated. But I tend to think of Microsoft as being the guy behind the guy. So it’s at a lower risk of being disintermediated, even from some of its hyper-scaling peers. The other big risk to Microsoft? They’re spending $30 billion in CapEx this quarter, and there are structural reasons why the demand for AI and cloud could be slowed down, like the power grid can’t handle all this demand. I don’t care how big you are; if you strand $30 billion in capital expenditures, that’s meaningful. I see plenty of speed bumps for Microsoft and for the entire sector, but given the internal diversity that they have, it is still my favorite bet in the sector.

The demand will be there, it’s almost a sure thing because it’s happened in every other revolution in the economy, going back to the railroads, that a lot of the capital expenditures are going to be stranded. They’re not all going to win, but none of the hyperscalers want to be left behind.

They say they have a plan and you would have to assume that all of these companies have recognized the risk, because they’ve already had difficulty sourcing energy. But that place in line is much more important than what the demand for the services looks like in 2028.

To me, it’s the highest quality investment opportunity in the space.

#NotFinancialAdvice

This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

—Peter S. Green

$MSFT ( ▲ 0.19% ) $META ( ▼ 1.49% ) $AMZN ( ▼ 0.93% ) $NFLX ( ▼ 0.78% ) $GOOGL ( ▲ 0.21% ) $SENTINELONE ( 0.0% ) $CRWD ( ▼ 1.01% ) $INTC ( ▼ 0.87% ) $SFTBY ( ▼ 0.33% ) $PLTR ( ▲ 0.13% ) $NVDA ( ▼ 0.31% ) $ORCL ( ▼ 0.54% ) $AMD ( ▼ 0.8% ) $ARM ( ▲ 1.21% ) $TGT ( ▼ 2.54% ) $WMT ( ▼ 4.91% ) $AMZN ( ▼ 0.93% ) $MCD ( ▲ 0.09% ) $TSLA ( ▼ 1.08% ) $CLRS ( 0.0% ) $PMRTY ( ▼ 0.01% ) $SHCO ( ▲ 0.06% ) $CCW ( 0.0% ) $NXST ( ▲ 0.72% )

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• Inside Intel? The Trump Administration wants to take a $10.86 billion grant awarded to Intel $INTC ( ▼ 0.87% ) under the Biden Administration’s CHIPs Act, and turn it into a 10% equity stake in the troubled U.S. chipmaker. Intel’s problem is that it’s not making chips that people want to buy. The CHIPs aid was meant to help it build facilities to make market-worthy chips. To make the investment work, the Trump administration would need to lean on potential Intel clients. It’s reminiscent of France’s state-run industrial policy, “dirigisme,” where the government owned golden shares in large enterprises, awarded them state contracts, and ensured they kept employment high. On Monday, Intel said it has been promised a $2 billion investment from Softbank $SFTBY ( ▼ 0.33% ) , which has already promised Trump it will shower the U.S. with hundreds of billions of dollars of investments. Markets aren’t overconfident in the strategy: Intel shares are down 7% in the past year, and about the same in the past five days.
• The tech stock drop. By the time you read this, tech stocks may have recovered, but a number of the most high-flying tech stocks were down significantly Thursday morning. Palantir $PLTR ( ▲ 0.13% ) dropped nearly 20% since Friday before recovering a bit, Oracle $ORCL ( ▼ 0.54% ) is down 6% since Tuesday, AMD $AMD ( ▼ 0.8% ) is down 8% in the past five days, Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 0.31% ) fell as much as 7% on Tuesday alone, Arm $ARM ( ▲ 1.21% ) is down 6.5% in the past five days, and Softbank is down 15% since the market closed on Monday. What’s going on? The consensus from Cheddar Street is that long-term shareholders are cashing out (the famous profit-taking) and others are wary that AI, big tech, and big chips may have reached a plateau for now.
• Off-Target: Target’s $TGT ( ▼ 2.54% ) got a new boss, but he’s cut from the same cloth as the old boss. COO Michael Fidelke, a 20-year Target vet, will take over in February from Brian Cornell who’ll become executive chairman. But will that help? Profits plummeted 20% in the last quarter as shoppers shunned the store’s offerings, and only massive sales kept revenue from bottoming. Analysts appear to be doubting an insider can fix the chain, hammered by Walmart $WMT ( ▼ 4.91% ) and Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 0.93% ) , and the impending price shock of the tariffs. Shares in Target are down more than 6% since the announcement. They’re down 32% in the past 12 months. 
• When inflation goes high, Mickey D goes low: As lower-income Americans run out of cash, their favorite eatery is cutting prices. A hard-won fight with franchisees has McDonald’s $MCD ( ▲ 0.09% ) cutting the price on combo meals by 15%, with plans to offer a $5 breakfast and $8 Big Mac combos. Even as U.S. same-store sales grew 2.5% in the last quarter, traffic was down 2.8% at fast-food restaurants in general. The firm’s shares are up 2.5% in the past 5 days. 
• Zuck unstuck? Meta $META ( ▼ 1.49% ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched another re-org as he seeks to make the Facebook parent a dominant player in AI, and get new AI products to market faster. Meta Superintelligence Labs is splitting into four groups, one focused on A.I. research, one on Zuck’s “superintelligence,”; another on products, and one on data centers and infrastructure. Meta said its investments could reach $73 billion this year, with most of that going to AI.

• Claire’s is still there! Tween costume jewelry and ear-piercing fave Claire’s just got a lifeline out of liquidation. The bankrupt chain halted liquidation sales at most of its North American stores, and said it’s selling most of its business to PE firm Ames Watson. The new buyers say they want to preserve “a significant retail footprint” for the chain.
• Grinning all the way to the bank: Chinese retailer Pop Mart’s $PMRTY ( ▼ 0.01% ) stock popped 12% on Wednesday after it announced the impending sale of mini-Labubu dolls, those smirking elvin fluffies collected by Rihanna and Dua Lipa. The minis will be small enough to hang on mobile phones. Don’t let your tween daughters near your credit card.
• I would never join a club that would take me as a member: Soho House $SHCO ( ▲ 0.06% ) , a string of clubs for people who know wealthier and more interesting than you or I, is going private after losing more than half a billion dollars since going public. Investors include Ashton Kutcher, and the company’s existing executive chairman, Ron Burkle. The deal values the floundering business at $2.7 billion. Boutique hotel owner MCR will take a stake in the new company, hoping to revive interest in the club concept. But this is the only year that Soho Club has been profitable as a public company. That may be because of an existential dilemma Groucho Marx would be proud to outline: While defined by its exclusivity, the company has 46 clubhouses and 270,000 members. That’s an awful lot of D-listers and then some. Yet if you kick people out, you can’t make money. Or: Can you?

• Subtalk: Overwhelmed by all those subscription TV services? Major e-commerce sites and cable companies want you to buy your streaming services through them. Amazon, with 46 million streaming subs is leading the charge —they take a 30% to 50% commission for the subscriptions they gather for streamers, the New York Times reports. But those high rates from Amazon have kept Netflix $NFLX ( ▼ 0.78% ) , for one, from signing up. Still, HBO Max found itself hostage to Amazon when it left Prime Video in 2021. It lost 5.1 million subscribers, but when it returned a year later, it won 3 million subscribers within 3 months. 
• MSNB-whatevuh? As Comcast $CCW ( 0.0% ) prepares to spin off liberal cable news channel MSNBC, severing it forever from NBC News, it’s given the channel what is possibly the worst brand name in TV history. The new moniker: MS Now, short for My Source News Opinion World. (The MS originally came from Microsoft, which created the channel with NBC back in 1996). CNBC gets to keep its name, which always stood for Consumer News & Business Channel, but both will drop the NBC Peacock logo. 
• The Fox Follies: Remember the $787.5 million Fox paid voting machine company Dominion to settle defamation claims after Fox alleged Dominion had fixed the 2020 presidential election? Well, voting machine firm Smartmatic is still pursuing its own suit for $2.7 billion over the same unproven allegations of fraud, and conservative TV channel Newsmax has agreed to pay Dominion $67 million for broadcasting similar false claims.
• Mergermania: Local TV giant Nexstar $NXST ( ▲ 0.72% ) says it’s agreed to buy Tegna, the spinoff holding Gannett’s TV stations. Adding Tegna’s 64 local stations would give Nexstar 265 stations in 44 states, and requires FTC approval, especially since the two overlap in 35 markets. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook says the $6.2 billion deal (that’s just a tad larger than Nexstar’s market cap) is vital to compete with tech giants Meta and Alphabet. Conservative network Sinclair is also angling for Tegna.

• The Apprentice: Fed Chair Edition. Sub-plots within plots! Trump took to social media to demand that Fed governor Lisa Cook “resign now !!!,” after Trump ally and federal home mortgage chief Bill Pulte said Cook appeared to have claimed two different homes as her primary residence when applying for federally guaranteed mortgages, in order to get better loan terms. Removing Cook wouldn’t give Trump allies a majority on the Fed. There are still only two governors who are avowedly pro-Trump, of the 12 members who vote on interest rates, but a replacement could help put public pressure on chair Jerome Powell.
• The Gilded Aged: The name is Bond. Donald Bond. Shaken or stirred, Donald Trump has spent at least $100 million buying corporate and local government bonds since he became president, CNBC reported, citing an Aug. 12 filing with the Office of Government Ethics. The corporate bonds include those issued by T-Mobile $TMUS ( ▼ 0.54% ) , UnitedHealth $UNH ( ▲ 1.92% ) , Home Depot $HD ( ▼ 1.01% ) , and Meta $META ( ▼ 1.49% ) . All but Home Depot are closely regulated by federal agencies. 

• Y Not? It may not be quite big enough for Musk’s own extended family, but a new, extended Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 1.08% ) Model Y is coming to China. With three rows of seats, it can hold six people, and will sell for about $47,000.  ”This variant of the Model Y doesn’t start production in the US until the end of next year,” Musk said on X, adding, “Might not ever, given the advent of self-driving in America.” Tesla shares are down more than 4% in the past 5 days, and down a third from their all-time high last December. 
• Short ride? Short-seller Jim Chanos says it’s “absurd” to think that Musk will make Tesla Robootaxis profitable when ge can’t cut the cost per mile below 20 cents.
• About that $29 billion comp package. While Musk and X challenge a Delaware court’s decision to block his 2018 comp package that was worth nearly $58 billion at one point, a new shareholder group is challenging the company’s interim award of a $29 billion equity grant. Raising concerns about executive comp rules compliance with Nasdaq, SOC Investment Group says the board failed to win shareholder approval for the grant.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.

“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in a statement issued by the Fed.

Bill Pulte, the head of the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a Trump appointee, alleged on the X social media platform early Wednesday that Cook had claimed two primary residences -- in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Atlanta -- in 2021 to get better mortgage terms. Mortgage rates are often higher on second homes or those purchased to rent.

Trump followed up Pulte’s accusation by calling on Cook to resign, in the latest effort by the administration to exert greater control over one of the few remaining independent agencies in Washington. Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, for not cutting its short-term interest rate, and even threatened to fire him.

If Cook is forced off the Fed’s governing board, it would provide Trump an opportunity to appoint a loyalist. Trump has said he would only appoint officials who would support cutting rates.

Pulte urged the Justice Department to investigate Cook, who was appointed to the Fed’s governing board by former president Joe Biden in 2022. She was reappointed the following year to a term that lasts until 2038, the longest remaining term among the seven governors.

Cook also said, “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”

Pulte, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that on June 18, 2021, Cook purchased a home in Ann Arbor and then two weeks later bought a condo in Atlanta. Before joining the Fed, Cook taught at Michigan State University. Pulte also charged that Cook has listed her condo in Atlanta for rent.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Just last month, Trump blasted Powell for the ballooning cost of the renovation of two of the Fed’s headquarters buildings, even suggesting that the run-up in costs could constitute a firing offense. He backed off his threats to fire Powell after receiving a tour of the project.

Pulte also suggested that Cook’s alleged actions could constitute a fireable offense. Fed officials are protected by law from being removed by a president, except “for cause,” which is generally seen as some kind of malfeasance or dereliction of duty.

Either way, if Trump seeks to fire Cook, it could lead to a court battle over a president’s power to remove Fed governors.

Senate Democrats, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, expressed support for Cook and slammed Trump’s actions.

“Trump is a liar. Lisa Cook—stand tough and don’t let Trump intimidate you," Schumer wrote in a post on social media platform X.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that Trump “has been scrambling for a pretext to intimidate or fire Chair Powell and members of the Federal Reserve Board while blaming anyone but himself for how his failed economic policies are hurting Americans.”

Trump will be able to replace Chair Jerome Powell in May 2026, when Powell’s term expires. Yet 12 members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee have a vote on whether to raise or lower interest rates, so even replacing the Chair doesn’t guarantee that Fed policy will shift the way Trump wants.

But the more members of the Fed’s governing board that Trump can appoint, the more control he will be able to assert over the Fed, which has long been considered independent from day-to-day politics.

All seven members of the Fed’s governing board are able to vote on rate decisions. The other five voters include the president of the Fed’s New York branch and a rotating group of four of the presidents of the Fed’s other 11 regional branches.

Trump appointed two members of the Fed’s board in his first term, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman. Both dissented July 30 from the central bank’s decision to keep its rate unchanged, in favor of a rate cut.

Another Fed governor, Adriana Kugler, stepped down unexpectedly Aug. 1, and Trump has nominated one of his economic advisers, Stephen Miran, to fill out the remainder of her term until January.

If Trump is able to replace Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, as well as Kugler, that would give him a clear majority on the board of governors. If Powell leaves the board when his term as chair ends next May, then Trump will be able to fill a fifth spot. However, Powell could stay on the board until early 2028 after finishing his term as chair.

The presidents of the regional Federal Reserve banks are selected by the boards of directors of those banks, but are subject to the approval of the Fed’s board of governors. The terms of all 12 of the regional Fed presidents end next February.

Trump has for months demanded that the Federal Reserve reduce the short-term interest rate it controls, which currently stands at about 4.3%. He has also repeatedly insulted Powell, who has said that the Fed would like to see more evidence of how the economy evolves in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs before making any moves. Powell has also said the duties threaten to raise inflation and slow growth.

Trump says that a lower rate would reduce the government’s borrowing costs on $37 trillion in debt and boost the housing market by reducing mortgage rates. Yet mortgage borrowing costs and other interest rates, including many of the ones the government pays, do not always follow the Fed’s rate decisions.

The Trump administration has made similar claims of mortgage fraud against Democrats that Trump has attacked, including California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.