Donald Trump, likely to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has said that if he is re-elected, he will not reappoint Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chairman, and that the central bank’s plan to cut interest rates this year is in line with Biden. He claimed that it was only in the president’s interest.
Asked about whether he would keep Powell in office after his second term expires in 2026, President Trump said in an interview, “No, I don’t think so.” fox business.
President Trump said he would “do something to help Democrats by lowering interest rates,” but Wall Street hopes that borrowing costs will be lowered from their current 22-year highs as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Chairman Powell recently dashed hopes that a rate cut was imminent. march.
“I think he’s political,” Trump reiterated on Fox.
“I don’t think it’s likely that the committee will reach some level of confidence to cut rates by the March meeting, but that’s something to see. ” he said. Wednesday committee meeting.
At a two-day meeting, central bank officials decided to keep interest rates unchanged at between 5.25% and 5.5%.
Since the Federal Reserve’s July meeting, the stock market has performed well throughout 2023, even as interest rates have stabilized at multi-decade highs. The S&P 500 ended the year up 24%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14% and the Nasdaq rose 14%. He finished 2023 with an astonishing 43% increase. This was the best performance since 2020, due to that year’s artificial intelligence boom.
When asked why the stock market is doing so well under the Biden administration, President Trump replied: [voters] I think I will be elected,” in previously reported comments. bloomberg.
President Trump declined to say who, if not Powell, he would appoint as Fed chair. “I think there are a few options. I can’t say right now,” he told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo.
Trump has dominated primaries and popularity polls in recent weeks, winning last week’s New Hampshire primary, the nation’s first, with the highest raw vote total ever, and the week before that, winning the Iowa caucuses with a historic victory. It was a landslide victory.
The former president became the first non-incumbent Republican presidential candidate to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
In 2017, during the term of the 45th U.S. president, President Trump nominated Powell, 70, as Federal Reserve Chairman to replace Janet Yellen, who served as Treasury Secretary in the Biden administration.
At the time of Powell’s nomination, Trump, 77, described him as a “strong and dedicated person.” [and] Smart. “
Since then, President Trump’s attitude has changed. In 2019, there were reports that President Trump threatened to demote Powell over his interest rate hikes, which has been a drag on the Trump administration’s rapid growth.
Mr. Trump denied the allegations. “You could do that if you wanted to, but I’m not proposing that,” he told NBC at the time.
According to Bloomberg, when Mr. Biden reappointed Mr. Powell to lead the central bank for a second four-year term in 2021, he said he was surprised by the move, saying that Mr. Powell was “always slow, for better or worse,” in making policy decisions. ” was criticized. .
Mr. Powell has frequently reiterated over the past year that his goal is to get inflation back to 2%, a level not seen for the U.S. economy in more than a decade.
The latest inflation rate in December was 3.4%, higher than expected, dampening hopes that interest rates would start falling as early as March.
