Trump weighs firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether he should fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who he has been unhappy with for months.
On Tuesday night, Trump showed a group of House Republicans a draft letter that would fire Powell, asking members if they think he should remove the chair, The New York Times reported.
Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he asked the lawmakers if he should fire Powell, but said he wasn’t planning on firing him.
“I don’t rule out anything, but I think it’s highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud,” Trump said at the White House.
Trump and other White House officials have sharply criticized Powell in recent months, urging him to lower the central bank’s interest rate.
Powell has long said that the president’s sweeping tariff agenda would cause uncertainty to the economy and could increase inflation. He said at an event in April that Trump’s proposed “Liberation Day” tariffs could threaten prices and employment.
Powell said it was unlikely that there’d be any economic progress for the rest of the year, prompting a wave of scrutiny from Trump and threats for him to be removed.
Trump has consistently been eager for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He has said in the past that Powell’s termination can’t come soon enough.
The president nominated Powell to lead the Fed in 2017 during his first term. While past presidents have expressed frustration with other chairs, no one has gone so far as to fire the country’s leading central banker.
Trump confirmed Wednesday that he has “so many people” who are “begging” for the job to replace Powell. It remains unclear who Trump will eventually choose to replace Powell.
Powell’s term as chair is up in May 2026 and his term as a Fed governor will expire in 2028.