Washington:
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced him and said in a clear reconciliation statement after causing market disruption, there was no plan to fire the Federal Reserve chief.
Wall Street investors dumped US assets on Monday, dropping all three major indices after Trump took a series of swipes at US central bank Helome Powell.
The president criticized Powell for warning that the White House’s radical tariff policies are likely to rekindle inflation.
“I’m not going to fire him,” Trump said Tuesday.
“I hope he will be a little more aggressive in terms of his idea of lowering interest rates, which is the best time to lower interest rates.
“If he doesn’t, is it the end? No.”
Trump’s recent explosion against Powell has incited concerns he would kick him out, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said last week that he was considering whether the president could do so.
Trump has repeatedly said he hopes to cut interest rates right now to stimulate economic growth when he rolls out tariff plans, and that he threatened to fire Powell if he fails to comply.
“If I wanted him, he’d come out of there really quickly, trust me,” Trump said Thursday.
– Fear of inflation –
Powell said he has no plans to resign early, adding that he considers banks’ independence over monetary policy to be “legal.”
Many economists agree that the administration’s tariff plans, including a 10% “baseline” rate for imports from most countries, put up a positive pressure on prices and cool economic growth.
Asked about the possibility that US administrations might attempt to fire Powell before the end of their term, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde told CNBC on Tuesday that he hoped it would be “not at the table.”
The president has no direct authority to fire the Federal Reserve governor, but Trump was able to launch a lengthy process of trying to free Powell by proving that there is a reason for doing so.
Powell previously warned that Trump’s drastic tariffs could be in an enviable position that he must choose to tackle inflation and unemployment.
Wall Street stock, which was closed before Trump’s remarks, rebounded Tuesday after US officials did something cheerful about trade talks with China.
All three major US indices rose following comments from the White House press chief that Trump “set the stage for his deal with China.”
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare put some of the rebounds on Trump’s feelings that he wouldn’t fire Powell and instead “set him now to take responsibility for any economic downturn.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by Syndicate Feed.)
