Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Thursday said he wouldn’t resign from his role even if President-elect Donald Trump requested he do so, suggesting the move would be illegal.
During a press conference with reporters after the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates by 0.25%, Powell was asked to weigh into reports that Trump’s advisers have claimed he should give up his post.
“If he asked you to leave, would you go?” a reporter asked.
“No,” Powell replied.
Powell suggested that it would be illegal for Trump to dismiss him or any of the other people who sit on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
“Not permitted under the law,” he said.
The chairman of the central bank also refused to speculate about the potential impact of policies Trump has floated as part of his economic agenda in a second term, which include tariffs and tax cuts, among other things.
“In the near term, the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” he said. “We don’t know what the timing and substance of any policy changes will be. We, therefore, don’t know what the effects on the economy would be.”
He continued, “We don’t guess, we don’t speculate, and we don’t assume.”
Powell was nominated by Trump in 2017 to succeed now-Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen. President Joe Biden chose to put him forward for another term in 2021 despite the objection of progressive members of his party. Powell’s term as Fed chair expires in May 2026, and he has previously signaled that he intends to serve the full four years.
Trump has criticized Powell on several occasions for the Fed’s decisions on interest rates and even threatened to terminate him.
In an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump would not answer if he would remove or demote Powell but suggested that the Fed chair role was the “greatest job in government.”
Democracy In The Balance
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“You show up to the office once a month and say, let’s see. Flip a coin,” Trump said. “Everybody talks about you like you are a god.”
But an adviser told CNN that Trump plans to let him finish out the remainder of his term.
