President Trump on Thursday ratcheted his criticism of central bank leaders, claiming that if he wished, he could eliminate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“Yeah, he’ll leave. If I ask him, he’ll come out of there,” Trump told reporters in the oval office. “I don’t think he’s at work. He’s too late. It’s always too late. It’s a little late. And I’m not happy with him. I let him know that.”
“If I wanted him, he’d come out of there really quickly, trust me,” Trump said.
The president continued to accuse Republican Powell of “politics.”
Trump beat Powell in a social media post Thursday, lamenting that the Fed chairman was “too late” to cut interest rates. Trump said Powell’s “end will not be fast enough.”
Powell’s term ends in 2026. He said last November he would not resign if Trump asked, saying that it was “not permitted under the law” for the president to fire or demote him or other federal governors in leadership positions.
Trump’s comments set the possibility of a standoff with the central bank. This could be even more rattle on the already unsettling financial markets amid the president’s growing trade war.
The market collapsed Wednesday after Powell painted a picture of the stags of the risks the economy faced, warning of both growth rates and higher prices as a result of the Trump administration’s tariff policy.
