In the scathing screed against Federal Reserve System board of governors chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump, who has been excoriating the monetary policy figure while demanding interest rate cuts, floated the idea of firing him.
"I don’t know why the Board doesn’t override this Total and Complete Moron! Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have to change my mind about firing him? But regardless, his Term ends shortly!" Trump declared in the Friday Truth Social post.
Last week, Trump said he was not going to fire Powell.
Just last week, Trump said that he did not plan to fire Powell. (Left: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images; Right: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Trump's pressure campaign for rate cuts has proven unfruitful so far.
Despite the president's repeated broadsides against Powell, and ardent advocacy for lower rates, earlier this week a statement noted that the Federal Open Market Committee opted to keep "the target range for the federal funds rate at 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 percent."
Trump, who was not pleased, called Powell "truly one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government," in a Thursday Truth Social post, asserting that "the Fed Board is complicit."
"'Too Late' Powell complains about costs, much of which were produced by the Biden Fake ‘Government,’ but he could do the biggest and best job for our Country by helping to lower Interest Rates and, if he reduced them to the number they should be, 1% to 2%, that ‘numbskull’ would be saving the United States of America up to $1 Trillion Dollars per year," the president declared in his lengthy post on Friday.
During his first term in office, Trump nominated Powell to the post. President Joe Biden later tapped Powell for another term.
"I fully understand that my strong criticism of him makes it more difficult for him to do what he should be doing, lowering Rates, but I’ve tried it all different ways. I’ve been nice, I’ve been neutral, and I’ve been nasty, and nice and neutral didn’t work! He’s a dumb guy, and an obvious Trump Hater, who should have never been there, I listened to someone that I shouldn’t have listened to, and Biden shouldn’t have reappointed him," Trump said in the post.