Former President Donald Trump said if reelected, he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell when the central bank leader’s term expires in 2026.
“I am not a fan of Jay Powell,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox Business Network.
Trump appointed Powell to lead the Federal Reserve, but began criticizing his leadership within months because he believed the central bank went too far raising rates and slimming its bond holdings following the Great Recession.
In 2019, Trump said he had the right to demote or fire Powell and publicly questioned whether the Fed chief or Chinese leader Xi Jinping was a bigger enemy of the US economy.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of the former president’s rivals for the nomination, told CNBC earlier this week that he wouldn’t renominate Powell.
Trump’s comments came despite an unwritten tradition dating to the Clinton administration in which the White House largely avoided discussing Federal Reserve policy.
The Biden administration has resumed that policy, and the current president renominated Powell in 2021.
On Thursday, Trump, the Republican primary frontrunner, said he believed Powell was “always late, whether it was good or bad” with making policy decisions.
“I was surprised he was reappointed — probably got reappointed because they knew I didn’t like him much,” Trump said.
(Updates with DeSantis, in fifth paragraph.)
