Donald Trump is studying whether he’s able to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, his top economist said Friday, a day after the president publicly criticized the head of the central bank for not moving fast enough to slash interest rates.
“The president and his team will continue to study that,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday when asked by a reporter if removing Powell was an option.
Hassett went on to suggest that the Fed under Powell, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, had acted politically to benefit Democrats.
“The policy of this Federal Reserve was to raise rates the minute President Trump was elected last time, to say that the supply-side tax cuts that were going to be inflationary,” Hassett said.
Fed officials opted not to go “on TV and at IMF meetings and warn about the terrible inflation from the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden, and the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden was textbook inflationary,” Hassett continued. “And then they cut rates right ahead of the election.”
On Thursday, Trump repeatedly aired his criticism of Powell — and suggested he had the ability to remove the Fed chair — while sidestepping questions on whether it was a path he would pursue.
“I’m not happy with him. I let him know it. And oh, if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Hassett said his preference was to focus on “the policy, rather than the personalities.”
“If you think that it’s unacceptable for President Trump to be frustrated with the policy history of the Fed, then I think that you got some explaining to do,” he said.
免責聲明:投資有風險,本文並非投資建議,以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請,作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考,不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證,投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。