'Number of laughs' in room as conservative Supreme Court challenges Trump solicitor general

Donald Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook ran into a wall of skepticism at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, with an MS NOW reporter in the room for the hearing sharing that one aspect of Solicitor General John Sauer's case drew "a number of laughs."

Trump in August attempted to fire Cook, a Democrat appointed to the board by former President Joe Biden, claiming that she had engaged in "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct" relating to allegations of mortgage fraud. Cook pushed back against the president, asserting that he did not have the authority to remove her without cause, and contested the claims of fraud and the lack of any process she was given prior to Trump's attempt to fire her.

After arguments were heard at the Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, Fallon Gallagher, a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW, said that the case "felt different than any other" she had witnessed before the court, and predicted that the justices seemed likely to deny Trump the authority to fire Cook. She also noted that the justices bristled at one particular part of the process Trump used to remove Cook, which they characterized as the president formally announcing her firing via a post on Truth Social. This exchange, Gallagher noted, caused "a number of laughs" in the room.

During the segment, MS NOW host Chris Jansing also played an audio clip from the hearing in which a line of questioning from Justice Brett Kavanaugh about how Trump should have handled the case led to further laughter between him and Cook's attorney, Paul Clement.

"The president can be the final decision maker, but if he's going to be the final decision maker, and there's a due process, right, and I mean that statutory or constitutional, then it needs to be a little bit careful and say these are the allegations. He can't start by prejudging the issue by saying 'resign.""

Trump has, over the course of his second term in office, been accused of directing policy decisions via posts on his Truth Social platform. During a Wednesday episode of his podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," author and reporter Michael Wolff claimed that officials and staffers in the White House are frequently tasked with implementing Trump's statements and demands during late-night posting sprees into actual policies.