Trump Says Powell Will Be Out Fast If He Wants It

President Donald Trump said he could force out Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, rebuking the notion that the US central bank is independent, and vented frustration that monetary policymakers had not recently cut interest rates.

“If I ask him to, he’ll be out of there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday when asked about an earlier social media post blasting the Fed chair as being too slow to lower rates. “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it.”

The US president in the post said that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” A Fed spokesperson had declined to comment on Trump’s earlier remark.

At the White House, Trump didn’t respond to a follow-up question from a reporter about whether he was trying to remove the central bank chief. He also said Powell, who he nominated to take the Fed’s helm during his first term, has been “terrible.” There’s “essentially no inflation,” and if the Fed cut its benchmark, then borrowing costs would be lower also, he said.

--------

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Subscribe to Bloomberg Originals

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you global social video spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

Connect with us on…

Breaking News on YouTube