The Supreme Court has already said, in theory, it won't allow the president to fire Federal Reserve officials — but President Donald Trump is betting they won't actually follow through on that, reported Politico on Tuesday evening.

Trump announced the attempted firing on Monday of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, citing a currently unproven allegation by his housing finance chief, Bill Pulte, that she engaged in mortgage fraud. Cook denies any wrongdoing and has refused to vacate her position, filing a lawsuit that guarantees the matter will go to the courts.

"Key to the legal tea-leaf reading is a two-page, unsigned decision the Supreme Court issued in May allowing the president to fire two members of labor-related federal boards. In that decision, the court’s conservative majority emphasized the Federal Reserve should be viewed differently from other purportedly independent agencies housed within the executive branch," noted the report. In that decision, the justices wrote, “The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.”

However, Trump thinks he's found a way around that.

"Trump is betting the court won’t second-guess his decision on Monday to fire board member Lisa Cook 'for cause.' That might be a good bet, legal experts said Tuesday. Judges — including Supreme Court justices — may be reluctant to overturn a president’s subjective conclusion about what counts as an acceptable 'cause,' or legal basis, for a firing," said the report. "In this case, the purported basis is an unproven allegation that Cook lied on a mortgage application — even though Trump’s true motive likely is his frustration that the Fed has not lowered interest rates."

Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith had a succinct view of the matter on X: "There have been two institutional constraints on Trump 2.0: The courts and markets. The firing of Lisa Cook 'for cause' may be pretextual but is not obviously illegal."

Not every right-wing observer is on board with Trump's move against Fed independence; longtime GOP commentator Erick Erickson warned that Trump and his supporters are "playing with fire" not just by undermining the central bank's decision-making abilities, but by declaring one of its board members guilty of misconduct without any sort of due process.