Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will sue Trump administration to keep her job

The Justice Department has reached settlements with a group of current and former FBI agents who have said they were disciplined for invoking personal and political views, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the COVID-19 vaccine, and for clashing with supervisors about approaches to investigations, their lawyers said Tuesday.

Empower Oversight, a group founded and led by former staff members of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, announced the resolutions of 10 cases, including eight settlements in the last few weeks.

Many of the cases concern agents who had accused the FBI of politicization during former President Joe Biden’s administration, a claim leadership denied.

Some had resisted the mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine and complained about what they saw as overreach during the bureau’s sprawling investigation into Jan. 6. One attended Trump’s speech that day and later showed up at the Capitol but was not involved in any violence, his lawyers said.

A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, an organizational chart on its website shows.

The political appointment, first reported by Democracy Docket, shows how self-styled election investigators who have thrown themselves into election conspiracy theories since 2020 are now being celebrated by a presidential administration that indulges their false claims.

Her new role, which didn’t exist under former President Joe Biden, also comes as Trump has used election integrity concerns as a pretext to try to give his administration power over how elections are run in the U.S.

The president’s threats sent ripples through America’s third-largest city as many residents defended their home against Trump’s escalating rhetoric toward its violent crime, including claims it is a “killing field.”

Groups constantly pressing for police reform said sending troops who lack training in de-escalating violence or any knowledge about the nuances of neighborhoods still grappling with violent crime would undo progress made in recent years.

“It’s a direct affront to the progress our communities have made,” said Bradly Johnson, who leads BUILD Chicago. The anti-violence organization focuses its efforts on neighborhoods on the city’s West Side that have seen persistent crime, even as rates overall have fallen.

“It’s not a war zone,” Johnson said. “They’re vibrant resilient communities where young people deserve opportunities and not intimidation.”

Art Jarrett, a business owner just south of downtown, also pointed to Trump’s business presence in the city, saying: “He can’t think it’s that big a killing field; he wouldn’t have built a building here.”

“He’s full of crap,” said Jarrett, who has felt safe in the 57 years he has lived in Chicago.

▶ Read more residents’ reactions to Trump’s statements

Sixth District Commander Jaron Hickman said at a Q&A session that he wrote a mass email to the 302 officers under his command when Trump first launched his takeover of the department.

His message: “You have morals. We have policies. If you see something that doesn’t feel right, you should be speaking up.”

Hickman admitted it was “disheartening” to see checkpoints and arrests that don’t seem necessary to him but not be able get involved.

“It’s disheartening as a district commander, I can’t get out of my car off-duty and say, ‘Man, you guys aren’t needed here,’ ” he said. “I don’t know if that provides you with any comfort. I’m just being honest with you.”

A pair of senior Washington, D.C., police commanders acknowledged Tuesday that the ongoing federal law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital is alienating the population and damaging community relationships that will have to be mended in the future.

“I’m prepared to have those long, tough conversations. But I know it’s going to be tough,” said Sixth District Commander Jaron Hickman. “We are getting some violent people off the streets, but in the long run, at what cost?”

Hickman and Seventh District Commander James Boteler spoke before about 50 citizens at a meeting of the Anacostia Community Council. The appearance had been scheduled well before Trump took over the Metropolitan Police Department and flooded the capital with federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops.

The ongoing consequences of that decision basically dominated their 45-minute Q&A session.

Celebrity chef and local D.C. icon Jose Andres is pushing back against Trump’s claim that his federal takeover and law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital has resulted in a “boom town” for the city’s restaurants.

Trump on Monday rejected reports that the flood of federal agents and National Guard troops had hurt D.C. restaurant and nightlife industry.

“Half the restaurants closed, because nobody could go, because they were afraid to go outside,” Trump said. “Now those restaurants are opening and new restaurants are opening up. It’s like a boomtown.”

Andres, in a Tuesday post on X, directly and sarcastically addressed Trump, saying: “I understand why you are confused...all your time in DC you haven’t eaten ONCE outside the White House or your own hotel. I’ve lived here for 33 years, and it’s a flat out lie that half the restaurants have closed because of safety...but restaurants will close because you have troops with guns and federal agents harassing people...making people afraid to go out.”

The Spanish-American restaurateur and founder of the global food charity World Central Kitchen and Trump have exchanged public hostilities in the past.

Trump is tapping Dan Scavino to lead the White House Presidential Personnel Office.

Scavino is one of Trump’s longest serving aides and is currently a deputy chief of staff. The current head of the personnel office, which oversees vetting and selection of administration employees, is Sergio Gor, whom Trump is nominating as ambassador to India.

“Dan Scavino is one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest serving advisors. There is nobody better to ensure the President’s Administration is staffed with the most qualified, competent, and America First-driven workers,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “There is much still to be done and Dan’s leadership will ensure the highest quality, most dedicated workforce ever.”

President Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin may be receding into the past, but controversy continues to reverberate over an American archbishop’s exchange of friendly greetings and gifts with Putin.

Alaska Archbishop Alexei has issued a statement apologizing to “those who have experienced pain, suffering, or confusion” because of his meeting with Putin. Alexei did not apologize for the meeting itself, however, which took place just after the summit on Aug.15 in Anchorage.

Alexei’s superior in the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, said the archbishop failed to inform him as he should have of his plans to meet Putin. Tikhon said the meeting doesn’t represent the church’s position, which he said has been to “clearly and repeatedly condemn the aggression against Ukraine.”

Critics said Alexei conferred legitimacy on the Russian president by meeting with Putin, who faces accusations of war crimes from the International Criminal Court. Ukrainian-American bishops called the meeting “a betrayal of the Gospel of Christ.”

When it was all said and done, the president met with his top advisers for nearly three and a half hours.

Trump began with about 45 minutes of solo comments on everything from crime in Washington to windmills -- then let each Cabinet member speak.

The president then took questions from reporters before finally wrapping up.
As time wore on, networks that had been carrying the event live cut away to other programing. At several points, Trump and other officials even joked about journalists in the White House press pool who had to hoist boom mics to capture what was said during proceedings that lasted so long.

“It’s government. It’s an open government. That’s what we are,” Trump said when he was finally ready to conclude. “We haven’t made too many mistakes. We maybe will.”

In its first comment about Trump’s attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, the Fed said that Cook “has indicated through her personal attorney that she will promptly challenge this action in court and seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability” to serve on the Fed’s seven-member board of governors.

Cook is likely to seek an injunction blocking the president’s attempt to fire her, legal experts say.

The Fed also noted in its statement that Congress had set long, staggered 14-year terms for Fed governors such as Cook and added that governors “may be removed by the president only ‘for cause.’”

“Long tenures and removal protections ... serve as a vital safeguard, ensuring that monetary policy decisions are based on data, economic analysis, and the long-term interests of the American people,” the Fed also said.

“It doesn’t matter what they say,” Trump said as a reporter directed a question to his special envoy Steve Witkoff during Monday’s marathon Cabinet meeting about the Russia-Ukraine war. “Everybody’s posturing,” he added, using an expletive to describe it.

Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, made it clear last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until the Ukrainians agree to some of Moscow’s long-standing demands to end the conflict. Lavrov’s comments came after Trump earlier in the week declared a breakthrough in the conflict, saying that he was arranging for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet.

Trump, after intercepting the question for Witkoff, then turned to his envoy and asked if he had a “different answer” to offer.

Witkoff added, “I agree with you, sir.”

Asked if his administration was using the government to target his political opponents given his attempt to oust a Federal Reserve governor over alleged mortgage fraud, Trump bristled.

“No,” he said, adding of mortgage records: “They’re public.”

The president then chastised reporters for not digging into accusations of mortgage fraud, saying, “If you did your job properly, we wouldn’t have problems like Lisa Cook.”

Trump frequently decries the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for using his government to unfairly prosecute conservatives.

But Trump is attempting to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud that haven’t been proven.

The judge’s arrest and prosecution has highlighted the Trump administration’s clash with state and local authorities who resist its sweeping immigration crackdown.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan argues she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution.

However, a U.S. district judge disagreed on Tuesday, saying “there is no firmly established judicial immunity barring criminal prosecution of judges for judicial acts.”

Prosecutors say Dugan escorted a man living in the country illegally and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back door.

The judge’s decision can still be appealed.

Attorneys for Dugan said Tuesday that if the case goes to trial, they expect show Dugan “simply treated this case like any other in front of her courtroom.”

The president is standing by his call for surging visas for Chinese students to attend U.S. universities and colleges.

Trump on Monday faced rare pushback from supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, when he said he would allow 600,000 Chinese students into American universities and colleges. That would be more than twice the number of Chinese students enrolled in the 2023-24 school year.

Asked about his comments on increasing student visas for Chinese students, Trump stood his ground.

“I think it’s very insulting to say students can’t come here,” he said.

“But I like that their students come here. I like that it that other countries students come here,” Trump added. “And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly and it wouldn’t be the top colleges. It would be colleges that struggle on the bottom.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s call for more visas for Chinese students

Trump put on his political prognosticator’s hat when a reporter asked him about crime in Washington, DC.

He portrayed Democrats as favoring crime because some have pushed back strongly against his threats to send the National Guard into cities like Baltimore and Chicago.

“They’re against crime prevention,” Trump said. “You can’t do that.”

“I think crime will be the big subject of the midterms and will be the big subject of the next election,” he predicted, meaning the 2028 presidential election. “And I think the Republicans are going to do really well.”

The president was asked about his months of criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and said, “He’s been the wrong guy.”

Trump said Powell “hasn’t done the job,” adding that he thinks the Fed chair is “not a bad person, but I do think he has motives.”

While he didn’t elaborate, Trump said the economy would improve if Powell leaves his post. He also hinted that he might attempt more changes to Fed leadership, saying, “We’ll have a majority shortly” among the leadership ranks of the central bank.

The Fed operates independently, but Trump already has taken the extraordinary move of trying to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Before asking Trump a serious question about visas for international students from China, a reporter said she just had to ask Trump about his reaction to the engagement of Swift and Kelce.

“I wish them a lot of luck. I think he’s a great player, and he’s a great guy, and I think she’s a terrific person,” Trump said.

Back in 2024 after Swift endorsed Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, the then presidential candidate posted online, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

Showering the president and each other with compliments is a huge part of these Cabinet, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick got so carried away with the effusive praise that he didn’t finish explaining his point.

While talking about grants that the federal government gives colleges and universities, he turned to Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reference her department’s lawsuit against Harvard and began to praise her saying, “It’s so much fun to work with everyone here that we just have a blast.”

“We’re having fun together. This is the greatest Cabinet working for the greatest president,” Lutnick said, but he never got back on track to finish his thought about university patents.

Cook responded to Trump saying he’d terminate her by preparing a court challenge against what she called the president’s “illegal action.”

Asked about that during his Cabinet meeting, Trump was dismissive, offering, “You always have legal fights.”

“She seems to have had an infraction, and you can’t have an infraction,” he added of Cook.

He said “we have some very good people” in mind to replace Cook if she’s removed.

Trump’s idea to seek the death penalty for all murders in Washington is part of a long push by the Republican to expand capital punishment.

Most killings in Washington, however, are prosecuted under local law in D.C. Superior Court, where the stiffest punishment prosecutors can seek is life in prison since D.C. has outlawed the death penalty.

Prosecutors can bring murder charges in federal court in certain circumstances. And federal law spells out which crimes are eligible for the death penalty, such as the killing of a federal law enforcement official. It would be practically challenging for federal prosecutors to charge every D.C. murder and the killings might not fit under federal law in all cases.

For example, the Justice Department federally charged and are considering seeking the death penalty for the man accused of killing two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum.

Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history, and the president has spoken frequently of expanding executions.

And it isn’t because Marco Rubio is secretary of state and working for Trump, as he joked at the Cabinet meeting.

“This is the most meaningful Labor Day of my life as someone with four jobs,” Rubio said. The room erupted in laughter.

In addition to his full-time job as America’s chief diplomat, Rubio is also the interim national security adviser, acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and acting archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made the remarks during a cabinet meeting in capital Brasilia on Tuesday, after the U.S. leader enforced a 50% tariff hike on Brazilian imported goods that came into effect earlier this month.

“We don’t accept insolence and insults, or petulance from anyone,” Lula told his ministers, who, like Lula himself, were wearing “Brazil belongs to Brazilians” blue hats. “We are willing to sit at the table on equal terms. What we are not willing to do is be treated as if we were subordinates.”

Trump has tied the tariff to the trial of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss.

Trump, who was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, appears to identify with Bolsonaro.

One recurring line throughout Trump’s marathon Cabinet meeting is the fitness challenge to show off the physical prowess of the secretaries.

“Pete and Bobby” -- Hegseth at the Pentagon, Kennedy at HHS -- are active participants, but the leader is actually Scott Turner, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and former football player.

The challenge includes doing 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups in less than 10 minutes.

But there are certainly other fitness tests other than those.

“I don’t think Pete or Bobby could hold these sticks for two and a half hours,” quipped Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, referring to the audio and camera operators in the Cabinet Room, who had been holding up their equipment for about two hours at this point.

A nearly two-week stretch without a homicide in Washington has ended.

Police in Washington are investigating after a 31-year-old D.C. man died in a shooting shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

Trump has highlighted the streak of days without a homicide amid his takeover of the city’s police, at one point falsely claiming that it’s “the first time in anybody’s memory” that Washington went a week without a murder.

The district previously had similar periods without homicides this year, including 16 days from February to March.

The total number of reported crimes in Washington has dropped about 17% since Aug. 13 as compared to the 13 days prior to the takeover, though criminologists generally caution that data from short time frames is inconclusive.

It’s been less than 30 minutes since Taylor Swift announced her engagement to football player Travis Kelce, but Trump’s Cabinet meeting has been going on for nearly an hour and a half and there’s no indication anyone has clued the president and his secretaries in on the news.

It doesn’t appear that anyone has their phones on the table and so they may not have seen the news.

Trump has repeatedly said this year that Swift is “no longer hot.”

Trump said, “we’re going to be seeking the death penalty” in Washington, D.C., if someone kills someone in the nation’s capital.

D.C. and nearly two dozen states, about half of the country, have abolished the death penalty.

Trump said capital punishment is a “very strong preventative.”

The Death Penalty Information Center says studies have found no “meaningful evidence” that using the death penalty deters crime.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Trump to expect a “announcements” in September around his quest to find the cause of autism, the developmental disorder that affects the brain.

It’s unclear what scientific studies will be used to support Kennedy’s findings.

The health secretary had promised the president in April that he would undertake a “research effort” using “scientists from around the world” to determine the cause of the disorder, but the health department has not yet publicly launched such an effort.

He’s finally relented the floor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his first Cabinet member to speak during the meeting.

Iris Tao of Epoch Times told the president during the Cabinet meeting about being pistol-whipped while on her way to work on a Saturday morning two years ago after she refused to give her phone, wallet, laptop computer and other items to a masked assailant.

Trump and the White House are using stories like this to further the narrative that crime is rampant in the nation’s capital and to justify deploying more than 2,000 National Guard troops and other federal law enforcement officers across the city.

Trump told Tao, “I bet you see a big difference in the streets right now.”

She thanked Trump for the crackdown and said she feels “hopeful about DC again” for her family and “my baby on the way.”

Trump branded his landmark tax law the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” -- but now he’s not a big fan of the moniker.

“I’m not going to use the term ‘great, big, beautiful,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “That was good for getting it approved. But it’s not good for explaining to people what it’s all about.”

Some corners of the White House are easing off the “big, beautiful” name and instead opting for “Working Families Tax Cuts.”

As he was running down the list of accomplishments of his presidencies, Trump boasted about the success of Operation Warp Speed -- as his vaccine skeptic HHS leader sat near him.

Operation Warp Speed was an effort in Trump’s first term that expedited the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has effectively stopped development of the advancement of the mRNA vaccine, which were developed in response to the deadly 2020 pandemic.

“Operation Warp Speed, people say, is it one of the greatest achievements ever in politics, in the military?” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Because it was almost a military procedure.”

The president added that “everybody,” including Russian President Vladimir Putin, said “Operation Warp Speed, what you did with that, nobody can believe it.”

▶Read more about Trump and vaccines

President Trump again is making false claims about the price of gasoline, saying Tuesday that gas prices are down to about $2.25 per gallon. That is nearly a full dollar lower than the actual average prices as calculated by the AAA auto club.

Gas prices averages about $3.18 per gallon as of Tuesday, up 3 cents from a month ago but down from $3.35 last year at this time, AAA said.

At a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump again claimed without evidence that gas prices at some stations are as low as $2, a fact AAA and other groups dispute.

“We are not seeing any stations reported to us below $2/gal this morning,’' said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at gasbuddy.com.

Wholesale prices also are above $2 per gallon, and ”no stations sell gas at the wholesale price anyway.,’' De Haan said on X.

The president says tariffs are coming on furniture imports to help revitalize the domestic industry in North Carolina and South Carolina.

He said the state has the “most talented woodworkers that you’ve ever seen” but that the business was “stolen from us by others, not only China.”

Trump didn’t say when he would impose the tariffs but he encouraged woodworkers in those states to start teaching their children and grandchildren the art of furniture-making.

“Some of those incredible artists that I knew as young people, they’re older people now,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting. “But they still have the talent and they have time left, but they’re going to be teaching their sons and their daughters and their grandchildren and it’s going to be a beautiful thing to see. It’s going to happen like magic.”

Trump said the nation has added over half a million private jobs since his inauguration.

“These are the jobs that make money, create a better life,” he said.

And while he says private company jobs are up, the number of public federal government jobs are decreasing. Trump bragged that he had laid off 84,000 federal workers.

Earlier in August, Trump fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly job figures after a report showed that hiring slowed in July and was weaker than previously expected.

The president opened his Cabinet meeting overstating the case for how U.S. manufacturing has improved during the first months of his second term.

He claimed gas prices are lower than they actually are at gas pumps. He lambasted one of his frequent environmental targets in windmills, and also talked about how domestic production for things like automobiles may soon improve because of his policies.

As Trump talked, Cabinet members silently listened. At one point, Trump acknowledged them.

“I hope this table gets the credit for what’s happening, all of the credit,” he said

After an over hour-long delay, the president began the meeting by referencing the upcoming Labor Day holiday, saying that “every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker.”

He’s flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Democratic National Committee leadership has withdrawn a measure that would have clarified the party’s position on the Israel-Hamas war.

A resolution backed by DNC leadership, including Chair Ken Martin, was approved unanimously during Tuesday’s meeting of the party’s resolution committee. But after pushback from progressive members later in the meeting, Martin surprised those on both sides of the debate by withdrawing his resolution and calling instead for a task force to study the issue further.

“As we’ve seen there’s divide in our party on this issue,” Martin said. “I’ve decided today, at this moment, to listen … so we can move forward united today and have the conversation.”

The unexpected announcement came after the committee voted down a non-binding resolution from the party’s progressive wing calling for an arms embargo and the suspension of military aid to Israel. Martin’s version had called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and “the unconditional release of all hostages — living and deceased — held by Hamas.”

It also called for “the secure and unrestricted delivery of humanitarian assistance — including food, water, medicine and shelter — to civilians in Gaza” and reaffirmed the Democrats’ support for a two-state solution.

The sponsor of the more progressive version, DNC member Allison Minnerly of Florida, said she was disappointed by Martin’s decision. Martin did not outline a timeline for bringing a new resolution back to the full membership for a vote, but the group will not meet again for several months.

That’s according to Katherine Kuzminski, director of studies at The Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan group that researches national security issues. The estimate is based on the per-troop daily cost from 2021, when National Guard troops responded to the Jan. 7 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

States normally pay their guard members and then get reimbursed by the federal government. If Trump follows through on his vow to send National Guard troops to other cities like New York, Chicago or Baltimore over the objections of their governors, he would likely put the guard under his command and have the federal government pay troops directly.

The Pentagon told The Associated Press this week that it won’t know the cost until any mission concludes.

California, Washington and New Mexico could lose millions of dollars of federal funding if they continue failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.

An investigation launched after a deadly Florida crash involving a foreign truck driver in the country illegally who made an illegal U-turn on Aug. 12 found what Duffy called significant failures in the way all three states are enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of Trump’s executive orders.

“This is about keeping people safe on the road. Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends. We all use the roadway, and we need to make sure that those who are driving big rigs — semis — can understand the road signs, that they’ve been well trained,” Duffy said.

▶ Read more on the trucker English funding threat

Fed governor Lisa Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Trump “has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.”

“His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis,” Lowell added. “We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”

Trump said late Monday that he would fire Cook after a supporter of his alleged she committed mortgage fraud in 2021, before she was appointed to the Fed.

Controversy over the company’s rebrand, which features a simplified logo that removed the titular barrel and mascot, has reached the White House.

Trump said via Truth Social that Cracker Barrel should “admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before,” offering doing so could wield “a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity” to their advantage.

Politicians and pundits have sought to capitalize on the much criticized rebrand, suggesting it’s connected to their own political grievances.

The company issued a statement Monday saying it’s sticking with the new logo, in keeping with a new look that swaps its antique-filled stores with lighter paint and modern furniture.

The private meeting is not on Trump’s public schedule but a White House official confirmed that is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon,.

Trump wants Indiana, led by Republican Gov. Mike Braun, to follow Texas and redraw its congressional map early to pack more GOP voters into districts that could expand the party’s majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump’s moves have prompted California and some other Democratic-led states to retaliate by trying to redraw their districts to benefit their party.

The White House official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s private meetings.

The Cabinet meetings under Trump’s second term have become lengthy and often newsy affairs. While previous administrations have not historically livestreamed these meetings, Trump has opened part of the meetings up to the press and uses them as an opportunity for Cabinet members to tout their apparent successes as well as flatter the president with praise and take questions.

Trump says the public meetings are a way to showcase transparency, something he says his predecessor Joe Biden did not do.

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maryland’s entire federal bench over the chief judge’s order that stopped the immediate deportation of migrants challenging their removals.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump nominee, granted the judges’ request to toss the case after questioning why it was necessary for the administration to sue all the judges.

The order signed by Chief Maryland District Judge George L. Russell III prevents the Trump administration from immediately deporting any immigrants seeking review of their detention until 4 p.m. on the second business day after their habeas corpus petition is filed.

▶ Read more on this developing story

It’s the eighth straight month of growing anxiety over a weakening job market.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index ticked down by 1.3 points to 97.4 in August, down from July’s 98.7. A measure of short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market fell by 1.2 points to 74.8, remaining significantly below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. And consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation also fell modestly, to 131.2 in August from 132.8 in July.

While the unemployment and layoffs remain historically low, there has been noticeable deterioration in the labor market and mounting evidence that people are having difficulty finding jobs.

▶ Read more about declining American consumer confidence