Former Federal Reserve Governor, Adriana Kugler resigns abruptly

Former Federal Reserve Governor, Adriana Kugler abruptly resigned from the Board on August 1st 2025 even though her term was not set to expire till January 2026.

Kugler has refused to give a reason for stepping down and has also decided not to comment further to media which has fueled speculation and confusion. The Federal Reserve commented that Kugler would be returning to Georgetown University as a professor in the fall, but her faculty page doesn't show her teaching any courses, and hasn't been updated since she became governor of the Federal Reserve Board, and Georgetown University has also refused to put out a statement about Kugler's status with the university. 

There's speculation on whether she might have been pressured to step down, especially because other Fed board members are under political scrutiny. NBC notes that "inconsistent real estate records have become a type of ammunition that the Trump administration has used to target its political enemies, often citing the records to publicly accuse people of having committed 'fraud'." These allegations have been extended to Lisa Cook, the Former Fed governor who had a campaign launched against her for committing 'mortgage fraud', and other political figures like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff (who are two of Trump's legal antagonists) who have also been accused of mortgage irregularities. While real estate records related to Kugler also show discrepancies regarding her primary residence, nothing shady seems to be going on there.

Kugler's resignation provided Donald Trump with the opportunity to choose a successor to fill her seat till the end of her term, and he chose Stephen Miran, the White House advisor. With this addition to the board, Trump now has nominated three of the seven members on the board, which gets him closer to his goal of 'dominating' the central bank. 

Seating Miran on the Fed Board is a victory for Trump who has been battling for months with the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for control and to drop the interest rates. The Trump administration have accused Powell of deliberately holding back U.S. economic growth, and Trump says he should have lowered interest rates a long time ago.