Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is hopeful the central bank will maintain its historic independence under President-elect Donald Trump, he expressed Wednesday, the latest in a spotty history between Powell and Trump as the latter has often jabbed at the Fed.
Donald Trump, left, and Jerome Powell in 2017.
“I'm not concerned that there's some risk that we would lose our statutory independence,” Powell said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
“There is very, very broad support” for the Fed to pursue monetary policy “for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome,” Powell explained.
Powell also pushed back against the idea of a “shadow Fed chair,” a preordained appointee to replace Powell at the end of his term in 2026, touted by Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, the top economic position in the incoming administration.
A shadow Fed chair is not “on the table at all,” Powell declared, adding he’s “fully confident” he’ll have the “same kind” of relationship with Bessent as other Fed and Treasury chiefs have had in prior decades.
“There's got to be trust and mutual respect and acknowledgement of the different authorities and boundaries that we have,” said Powell.
Trump originally appointed Powell to lead the Fed in 2017, but Trump has often taken issue with Powell’s oversight of the most public-facing function of the Fed, setting interest rates. In 2019, Trump said he was “disappointed” in the pace of rate cuts from the “problem” Fed, and he appeared to accuse the Fed of making a political statement in lowering rates in September ahead of the election.