Topline
President-elect Donald Trump said he doesn’t plan to attempt to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after criticizing Powell for years and suggesting in his first term he may try to fire the Fed chief—a move Powell says is illegal.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sits silently during the New York Times annual DealBook … [+]
Key Facts
Trump said, “no, I don’t think so, I don’t see it,” when asked by NBC in an interview aired Sunday if he would attempt to remove Powell.
Trump has criticized Powell repeatedly, and weighed attempting to fire him over interest rate hikes in 2018, but Trump has since retreated from the threat, telling Bloomberg over the summer he would allow Powell to finish out his term, which runs through May 2026.
Trump said he believes Powell would leave his post if Trump “told him to,” but not if he “asked him to.”
Powell told reporters last month, “no,” when asked if he would resign if Trump asked him to, because it’s “not permitted under the law,” as the Federal Reserve is designed to be independent and is not part of the federal government.
Key Background
Trump has repeatedly said he believes the president should play a role in setting interest rates, contrary to the Federal Reserve’s independence from politics. Trump appointed Powell in 2017, but repeatedly criticized him over rising interest rates, writing, “my only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi,” referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a 2019 tweet. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, he told reporters he has the “right to remove” Powell, who Trump said at the time “has made a lot of bad decisions.” He also suggested Powell had an easy no-show job during remarks this year at the Economic Club of Chicago, where Trump said, “you show up to the office once and month and you say, ‘let’s flip a coin,’ and everybody talks about you like you’re a god.”
Crucial Quote
“I’m not concerned that there’s some risk that we would lose our statutory independence,” Powell said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit earlier this month. “There is very, very broad support” for the Fed to pursue monetary policy “for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome.”
Surprising Fact
No president has ever attempted to remove the federal reserve chair, a legal gray area, according to the Brookings Institution, which notes there is no statute that says whether a president can remove a fed chair.
Tangent
Trump made the comments to NBC in a wide-ranging interview in which he also said he believes members of the House Jan. 6 committee “should go to jail” and suggested President Joe Biden should preemptively pardon them, as Biden is reportedly considering doing for some of Trump’s political foes.
Further Reading
Can Trump Fire Jerome Powell? Fed Chairman Says He Won’t Resign If Trump Asks (Forbes)
Trump details sweeping changes he’ll carry out on day one and beyond in an exclusive interview (NBC)
Jerome Powell Says He’s ‘Not Concerned’ About Federal Reserve Independence Under Trump (Forbes)
