In the long history of tensions between political power and institutional independence, a new chapter is being written: a sitting president is threatening to sever major trade relationships unless the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, transforming monetary policy into a hostage of executive will. The Federal Reserve, designed precisely to be insulated from such pressures, now faces a test that is less about economics than about the durability of institutional autonomy itself. Whatever the Fed decides in the weeks ahead, the precedent being set — that trade can be weaponized to coerce a ce