Donald Trump did exactly what he said he’d do.

There was no weekslong debate in the West Wing, no careful coordination with congressional allies, no intensive staff presentations detailing arcane legal authorities. There was just a social media post from the president suggesting a Federal Reserve governor should resign and then, a few days later, another one announcing she’d been fired .

In interviews with more than a dozen Trump administration officials across Washington and Republican lawmakers back home in the final days of their August recess, they all shared a similar refrain in the hours after Trump moved to terminate a Federal Reserve governor for the first time in history: They had no idea it was coming.

But several Trump officials suggested the signs were obvious. Just days e

See Full Page