Tariffs, Turmoil, and the Fed: Is Project 2025 Engineering a Financial Coup?
April 2025 will be remembered for many things, market crashes, exploding inflation, and sweeping tariffs that hit like a sledgehammer across every sector of the U.S. economy. But beneath the chaos of Donald Trump's so-called "Liberation Day" lies perhaps something more calculated is in the offing: a potential power grab that Project 2025 has quietly been setting up all along.
Bear with me here.
First, a refresher: Project 2025, the far-right roadmap for a second Trump term spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, doesn’t just dream of executive supremacy. It explicitly lays out plans to bring the Federal Reserve under direct executive control. The goal? Strip it of independence, fire its leadership, and retool it to serve the whims of the White House rather than the long-term economic stability of the country.
Now enter Trump’s tariffs—blunt-force economic policy disguised as populist protectionism. A 10% baseline on all nations, with country-specific spikes as high as 54%. Predictably, the market tanked. Tech giants lost over $1 trillion in value in a single day. The Fed, stunned by the size and speed of the tariffs, issued a rare statement: the economic impact would be "significantly larger than expected," potentially leading to higher inflation and lower growth, the textbook definition of stagflation.
But here’s the twist: this crisis may not be a miscalculation. It may be a trigger.
By deliberately destabilizing the economy, Trump creates the illusion that the Fed is asleep at the wheel. Inflation rises. Growth stalls. The public panics. And then comes the narrative:
“The Fed is failing the American people. It's time for bold leadership.”
That leadership, of course, would come from the Oval Office.
It’s a familiar pattern: manufacture a crisis, undermine the institutions meant to manage it, and then seize control under the guise of emergency powers. It’s the same playbook Trump used to attack the Department of Justice, the intelligence community, and the press. But this time, it’s the central bank, the last major institution still operating with some independence.
Let’s be clear: Trump didn’t dream this up on his own. While he is devious and power-hungry, the level of coordination required to pull off this kind of systemic sabotage points directly to the architects behind Project 2025 - Heritage Foundation strategists, economic extremists, and loyalist think tanks who have spent years preparing this blueprint. Trump is the battering ram. The real threat lies in the ideologues whispering in his ear and writing the playbook.
The implications would be massive. If the White House succeeds in pulling the Fed under executive control, it can:
Print money without oversight
Set interest rates to serve political cycles
Inflate markets artificially ahead of elections
Punish or reward sectors based on loyalty
We are talking economic authoritarianism.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is already under fire. Trump wants him gone, or broken. And with Project 2025’s blueprint in hand, all it might take is one emergency declaration to make it happen. If markets continue to spiral (as they almost certainly will under the weight of these tariffs), expect Trump to argue that the Fed is obstructing national recovery. Expect calls to “streamline economic leadership.” Expect loyalty tests for monetary officials.
And if the Fed resists? It will be painted as part of the Deep State, sabotaging the economy to hurt Trump and his voters.
Trump has never hidden his disdain for institutional independence. What we’re witnessing may be the most dangerous move yet: the weaponization of economic crisis to consolidate power and potentially end the era of central bank autonomy.
What comes next is critical. Will Congress push back? Will the public recognize the play, if there is one, before it’s too late? Or will we be distracted by the very chaos Trump has unleashed?
Watch the Fed. Watch the messaging. Watch the emergency powers.
Because the road from tariffs to tyranny is being paved in real time, and Project 2025 has the blueprint in hand.