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Sept. 25, 2025, 11:52 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 25, 2025, 3:36 PM EDTBy Steve KopackA group of the country’s top economic leaders, including every living former Federal Reserve chair, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Thursday in support of Fed governor Lisa Cook, who President Donald Trump is seeking to remove.The group, led former central bank chiefs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, said that “allowing the removal of Governor Lisa D. Cook while the challenge to her removal is pending would threaten that independence and erode public confidence in the Fed.” The bipartisan group, which also includes former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Hank Paulson, Jack Lew and Timothy Geithner, added that “the independence of the Federal Reserve, within the limited authority granted by Congress to achieve the goals Congress itself has set, is a critical feature of our national monetary system.”As the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve is part of the U.S. government and its leaders are put in place by elected officials, but it also retains a considerable amount of independence that is meant to allow it to make decisions purely out of economic concerns rather than political ones. The former economic officials said that an erosion of Fed independence could result “in substantial long-term harm and inferior economic performance overall.”The Supreme Court is considering whether Trump has the authority to fire Cook, who has been a target for the White House for weeks as part of a broader pressure campaign to push the Fed to more aggressively cut interest rates.Cook’s attempted removal stems from allegations of mortgage fraud, made in August by top Trump ally and Federal Housing Finance Authority Director Bill Pulte.Cook has repeatedly denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime. Documents reviewed by NBC News in mid-September appeared to contradict Pulte’s allegations.Two courts have so far blocked Cook’s removal, leading Trump to ask the Supreme Court a week ago to allow him to fire her. In a court filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said a judge’s ruling that blocked the firing constituted “improper judicial interference.”In a filing to the Supreme Court on Thursday, Cook’s lawyers said that “she committed neither ‘fraud’ nor ‘gross negligence’ in relation to her mortgages.”Cook asked the court to deny Trump’s attempt to remove her while the case is argued. The White House has repeatedly maintained that Trump “lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause.”The brief filed Thursday is a who’s who of the country’s top economic minds. Former Fed governor Dan Tarullo is also listed as a signatory to the brief, as well as the economists Ken Rogoff, Phil Gramm and John Cochrane.Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw, Christina Romer, Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein and Jason Furman, a group who served as top officials on the White House’s council of economic advisers during Republican and Democrat administrations, also signed the brief.None of the officials who signed the filing have served in either of Trump’s administrations.Lisa Cook is sworn in during a Senate Banking hearing in 2023.Drew Angerer / Getty Images fileTrump is the first president in U.S. history to try to remove a sitting Fed official. “There is broad consensus among economists, based on decades of macroeconomic research, that a more independent central bank will lead to lower and more stable inflation without creating higher unemployment — thus helping to achieve the Federal Reserve’s statutory objective of price stability and maximum employment,” the officials said in the brief.”The Federal Reserve walks a careful line in pursuit of its goals.”They noted that “elected officials often favor lowering interest rates to boost employment, particularly leading up to an election.””Although that approach may satisfy voters temporarily, it does not lead to lasting gains for unemployment or growth and can instead lead to persistently higher inflation in the long-term and thus ultimately harm the national economy.”The former Fed chairs and economic officials, in their filing, highlight a notorious case of political pressure on the Fed: “In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon famously exerted political pressure over then-Chair of the Fed Arthur Burns to lower unemployment by reducing interest rates. During this period ‘the Fed made only limited efforts to maintain policy independence and, for doctrinal as well as political reasons, enabled a decade of high and volatile inflation.’ This contributed to an ‘inflationary boom’ and deep recession that took years to bring back under control.”Steve KopackSteve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.Lawrence Hurley contributed.

- Latest News - September 26, 2025

A group of the country’s top economic leaders, including every living former Federal Reserve chair, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Thursday in support of Fed governor.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleSept. 25, 2025, 8:33 PM EDTBy ReutersPresident Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariff on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets.Trump also said he would start charging a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week.He said the new heavy-duty truck tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and said the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned PCAR.O Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned DTGGe.DE Freightliner.Trump has launched numerous national security probes into potential new tariffs on a wide variety of products.He said the new tariffs on kitchen, bathroom and some furniture were because of huge levels of imports that were hurting local manufacturers.“The reason for this is the large-scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump said, citing national security concerns about U.S. manufacturing.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the department not to impose new tariffs, noting the top five import sources are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany and Finland “all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to U.S. national security.”Mexico is the largest exporter of medium- and heavy-duty trucks to the United States. A study released in January said imports of those larger vehicles from Mexico have tripled since 2019.Higher tariffs on commercial vehicles could put pressure on transportation costs just as Trump has vowed to reduce inflation, especially on consumer goods such as groceries.Tariffs could also affect Chrysler-parent Stellantis STLAM.MI, which produces heavy-duty Ram trucks and commercial vans in Mexico. Sweden’s Volvo Group VOLVb.ST is building a $700 million heavy-truck factory in Monterrey, Mexico, set to start operations in 2026.Mexico is home to 14 manufacturers and assemblers of buses, trucks, and tractor trucks, and two manufacturers of engines, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.The country is also the leading global exporter of tractor trucks, 95% of which are destined for the United States.“We need our Truckers to be financially healthy and strong, for many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!” Trump added.Mexico opposed new tariffs, telling the Commerce Department in May that all Mexican trucks exported to the United States have on average 50% U.S. content, including diesel engines.Last year, the United States imported almost $128 billion in heavy vehicle parts from Mexico, accounting for approximately 28% of total U.S. imports, Mexico said.The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association also opposed new tariffs, saying Japanese companies have cut exports to the United States as they have boosted U.S. production of medium- and heavy-duty trucks.ReutersReuters

- Latest News - September 26, 2025

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariff on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of.

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Sept. 25, 2025, 7:43 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 25, 2025, 8:18 PM EDTBy Tim Stelloh and Joe KottkeAuthorities confirmed that remains found in a remote part of Washington state were those of Travis Decker, the U.S. Army veteran accused in the horrific murder of his three young daughters and the subject of a monthslong manhunt. Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said Thursday that officials received DNA results from Washington State Patrol’s crime lab confirming the identity of the remains. Clothing recovered from the scene also belonged to Decker, he said.Travis Caleb Decker.U.S. Marshals ServiceMorrison apologized to the girls’ mother, Whitney Decker, for how long it took to track down Decker.”But I hope that you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is accounted for,” Morrison said. “He is deceased. Our DNA results confirm that, and this will bring a close to our case.”He said officials are still awaiting a possible cause and time of death from the coroner.A psychologist pointed authorities to a 7,500-foot mountain east of Leavenworth, Washington, Morrison said, “and her insights and guidance led us to an important area to search where we did eventually locate Mr. Decker. Again, we couldn’t have done this by ourselves.”The announcement came after the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said last week that the remains were found in a wooded area south of Leavenworth, nearly 120 miles east of Seattle. That area wasn’t far from the remote campsite where the bodies of Decker’s daughters — Evelyn, 8; Paityn, 9; and Olivia Decker, 5 — were found with bags over their heads on June 2.The girls had been zip-tied, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant, and Decker’s abandoned pickup was found near the campsite with two bloody handprints on the tailgate.The county medical examiner said the girls died by suffocation. Decker, 32, was accused of murder and kidnapping in their deaths. He was also wanted on one federal charge — unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.Authorities have not identified a potential motive. In the affidavit, a detective noted that Decker — who was divorced from his daughters’ mother — refused to sign a parenting plan that required him to seek mental health treatment and domestic violence anger management.The girls had been with Decker for a May 30 visitation when he failed to return them, setting off an intensive search that covered hundreds of square miles across a rugged swath of the state. There were dozens and dozens of potential sightings in the weeks that followed, authorities said, including one that led investigators as far away as Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest. That sighting turned out to be false.Decker, who was described by authorities as an outdoorsman who would go “off-grid” for months, appears to have been seen only once, in an area south of Leavenworth, when tracking teams spotted an off-trail hiker who ran from their helicopter.Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Joe KottkeJoe Kottke is an assignment editor at NBC News covering domestic news, including politics, crime, natural disasters, immigration and LGBTQ issues.

- Latest News - September 26, 2025

Authorities confirmed that remains found in a remote part of Washington state were those of Travis Decker.

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