The Federal Reserve said Governor Adriana Kugler will leave the central bank on 8 August, nearly five months before her term was due to end in January 2026. Kugler, the first Latina on the Board and a labour economist by training, plans to return to Georgetown University. Her early departure gives President Donald Trump an immediate opportunity to fill a seat on the seven-member Board of Governors and potentially influence the leadership contest ahead of Chair Jerome Powell’s term expiry next May. Trump told reporters he will nominate a successor "in the next couple of days." The president also said he will name a new Bureau of Labor Statistics chief within days after firing Commissioner Erika McEntarfer last week over disputed jobs data, moves that critics say risk politicising economic statistics and monetary policy. Kugler, appointed in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden, had emerged as a voice for holding rates steady while assessing the impact of trade and immigration measures. Powell thanked her for her service, calling her academic insights “impressive.”