Federal Reserve Chairman Powell speaks at a press conference after the two-day Federal Open Market Committee interest rate policy meeting in Washington, the United States, on November 7, 2024.
Annabel Gordon | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump Says he won’t try to replace Fed chairman Jerome Powellwhose term ends in May 2026.
In an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, Trump said “I’m not doing that” when asked if he planned to shorten the term of a central banker.
“Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that even if you asked him to leave his position, he would not. Would you try to replace Jerome Powell?” Welker asked in an interview at Trump Tower in New York.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so,” Trump responded. “But, I wouldn’t – I think if I told him to do it, he would. But if I asked him to do it, he probably wouldn’t. But if I told him to do it, he would.”
Welker then asked, “Don’t you have any plans to do that now?”
“No, I don’t,” Trump said.
Trump appointed Powell, a Republican and former private equity executive, as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in February 2018.
The two clashed multiple times during Trump’s first term, and Trump repeatedly threatened to fire him. In 2022, President Joe Biden reappointed Powell. second four-year term.
Powell has supply He responded to recent questions about whether he would leave early to allow Trump to pick a successor more quickly, and he said an unequivocal “no.” He also said he didn’t believe Trump could fire him. “The law doesn’t allow it,” Powell said at a post-election news conference.
As Trump returns to office, the relationship between Trump and Powell will be closely watched. Trump spent his first term lashing out at Powell for not moving quickly enough to ease monetary policy.
trump card Another attack on Powell In March 2020, at the beginning of the outbreak, he told reporters that he had the “authority to fire” Powell and criticized what he said was “a lot of bad decisions, in my opinion.”
Trump recently argued that the president should have the power to influence interest rate decisions set by the Federal Reserve.
“I don’t think I should be allowed to give the order, but I think I have the right to comment on whether rates should go up or down,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News at the Economic Club in Chicago in October.
Speaking of Powell’s job, Trump said, “You come into the office once a month and you say, ‘Let’s flip a coin,’ and everyone talks about you like you’re a god.”
