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▪ Trump’s Fed pick making waves

▪ DC's Bowser on Capitol Hill

▪ Kimmel’s show pulled after Kirk comments

▪ Georgia governor’s race getting crowded

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President Trump’s newest pick for the Federal Reserve’s board of governors is already making his mark as the lone dissenter from the agency’s interest-rate decision Wednesday.

While the Fed voted to reduce interest rates by a quarter point, as expected, Stephen Miran was the only member of the 12-person panel to call for a half-point drop, which would have been a much more significant move for the Fed to take in one swoop.

One voting member on Wednesday also signaled a desire to push rates down aggressively through the end of the year. While the Fed's projections are anonymous, observers instantly turned their attention to Miran, who has pushed for much lower rates.

It was a whirlwind 72 hours for Miran, Trump's top economic adviser who stepped back as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to fill the remaining four months of an open board seat at a key moment for the central bank. He was confirmed by the Senate Monday, sworn in Tuesday and voted Wednesday.

The latest decision was the first time the Fed has lowered rates in nine months, and it signaled two more rate cuts this year as the independent agency seeks to ease pressure on the weakening U.S. job market.

Trump has long pushed Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower rates. And while Powell has continued to express concern about higher levels of inflation (consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.9 percent last month), he acknowledged growing signs of weakness in the labor market.

“Our policy had been really skewed toward inflation for a long time. Now we see that there’s downside risk, clearly, in the labor market, so we’re moving in the direction of more neutral policy,” Powell said at a press conference Wednesday.

Two other Trump appointees to the Fed board, governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, voted with the rest of the board for a quarter-point reduction Wednesday. The pair had dissented from the Fed's previous decision in July to leave rates unchanged.

Miran joined the Fed this week as Trump's standoff with the independent agency reached new heights.

The president is battling to try to oust Fed board member Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. A federal appeals court blocked Trump’s attempt to remove Cook ahead of the Fed’s Wednesday meeting. The administration is expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Trump's moves are testing the independence of the century-old institution, which was set up to make major decisions separate from political pressures.

Powell dodged commenting directly Wednesday when a reporter asked how the Fed can maintain its independence if Miran is on a temporary leave of absence from his role in the Trump administration.

"We did welcome a new committee member today, as we always do, and the committee remains united in pursuing our dual mandate goals," Powell responded. "We're strongly committed to maintaining our independence and beyond that, I really don't have anything to share.”

▪ Axios: What is the Fed’s “third mandate”?

TRUMP, TRADE AND TECH: Trump will likely have an opportunity to react to the news of the interest rate drop during a joint press conference today with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The two leaders engaged in a bilateral meeting earlier Thursday morning, during which trade and technology were expected to be key topics of discussion.

The BBC reported that a proposed deal to remove tariffs on U.K. steel was postponed indefinitely, dealing a blow to British hopes of added relief for another sector of their economy. That will leave in place the 25 percent tariffs on steel, still considerably lower than the 50 percent tariff in place for other countries.

Trump said ahead of his visit that U.K. officials were interested in continuing trade negotiations while he was there.

“They’d like to see if they can get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them,” he said.

Wednesday’s events were big on pomp and circumstance as Trump met for the first time with King Charles III since the king’s coronation. Trump is the first U.S. president to make a second state visit to the U.K., having visited during his first term, when he met with then-Queen Elizabeth II.

Thursday's talks are expected to focus on diplomacy and government business, including the war in Ukraine, tariffs and investment in the U.S. and UK. Several leaders of top U.S. businesses will be on hand for a reception today in the UK, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Trump has emphasized his close ties to Big Tech leaders during his second term and hosted various technology heads for the first event at the newly renovated White House Rose Garden.

Follow today's live blog here.

▪ CNBC: “The UK is about to embrace Trump. The truth is, it needs him right now.”

▪

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