Administration continues to ramp up pressure on Fed chair
President Trump again called for Jerome Powell to step down Tuesday, the latest in a series of attacks by his administration on the Federal Reserve chair.
Trump – who has frequently criticized the central bank’s unwillingness to lower interest rates this year – told reporters in Washington, DC that Powell “should resign immediately” and said he would support a Congressional inquiry into the Fed’s actions.
“It’s OK with me. I think he’s terrible,” Trump said in response to a question about whether Congressional Republicans should investigate the Fed chair. “I call him ‘Too Late.’ He’s always late. But he wasn’t late with Biden before the election, he was cutting [rates] like crazy.”
Recent weeks have seen government officials including Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte call for Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May of next year, to resign from his position.
Last week, Trump used a post on Truth Social to call for Powell to step down, linking to a news article referencing Pulte’s view that the Fed chair should be investigated for swelling renovation costs at the central bank’s headquarters.
Those costs have ballooned to $2.5 billion, prompting Powell to pen a July 3 to Sen. Tim Scott mentioning the renovation as one among “important issues” Fed and Senate staffers intended to discuss.
Pulte said Scott had contacted Powell on June 24 about surging renovation costs but questioned the timing of his reply. “Why would he send it on July 3rd, right before the holiday?” he wrote in an X post.
Powell, who was installed as Fed chair during the first Trump presidency, has been a frequent subject of the president’s ire as the central banks continues to hold off on rate cuts while assessing the impact to the US economy of the ongoing global tariff war.
Last week, Trump used a handwritten note to Powell to signal that he believed interest rates should be much lower, including a graphic showing the US’s current central bank rate sits 35th lowest in the world.
Trump highlighted a section of the document showing countries singled out with rates between 0.25% and 1.75%, writing that the Fed rate “should be here.”
The Fed’s current target for its policy rate is 4.25% to 4.50%, having remained at that level since December.
Powell has given no indication that he intends to resign before the end of his term, but Trump has signaled in recent weeks that a decision is imminent on who he’ll choose to take the reins at the Fed in 2026.
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