OAN Staff Abril Elfi
2:59 PM – Monday, December 9, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump stated that he will not remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
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Trump said in an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” that he does not plan to cut Powell’s term short, which ends in May of 2026.
“The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said he will not leave his post even if you ask him to. Will you try to replace Jerome Powell?” Welker asked during a interview at Trump Tower in New York City.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t see it,” Trump replied. “But, I don’t — I think if I told him to, he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn’t. But if I told him to, he would.”
Welker followed up, “You don’t have plans to do that right now?”
“No, I don’t,” Trump said.
The president-elect had appointed Powell as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems in February of 2018.
Powell and Trump clashed a few times during his first term, with the president-elect threatening to fire him on various occasions.
In 2022, President Joe Biden reappointed Powell to a second four-year term.
Powell has given a firm “no” to recent questions about leaving his position early to allow Trump to select a replacement sooner. He also stated that he does not believe Trump can fire him.
“Not permitted under the law,” Powell stated at a post-election news conference.
Trump’s relationship with Powell will be closely watched as he returns to office. Trump chastised Powell during his first term, claiming that he was not moving quickly enough to ease monetary policy.
Trump went after Powell again in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, telling reporters that he had the “right to remove” Powell from the post and criticizing what he said were “a lot of bad decisions, in my opinion.”
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