President Donald Trump denied he was preparing to fire Jerome Powell after reports that the sacking of the Federal Reserve chair would be imminent.
Trump blasted the central bank chief in the Oval Office on Wednesday but pushed back on him being fired.
“No, I’m not talking about that,” the president said. “We get to make a change in the next eight months or so, and we’ll pick somebody that’s good.”
Trump did acknowledge that he raised the idea of firing Powell with House Republicans on Tuesday night, and they supported it. But he said he was “more conservative than they are.”
The president has been railing against Powell for months as the central bank has refused to cut the federal funds rate as quickly as the president wants.
“I think he’s done a terrible job. He’s costing us a lot of money,” Trump complained.
“He’s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed,” the president claimed. “I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.”
However, it was in fact Trump who appointed Powell to lead the Federal Reserve during his first term before Biden reappointed him.
The president said that he wants lower interest rates and insisted there is no inflation, but the latest data shows inflation accelerated last month.
Prices rose 2.7 percent over the past year ending in June, the highest annual rate since February.
Powell has said the Fed likely would have cut interest rates this year if not for the president’s widespread tariffs which many economists believe will lead to higher prices.
The head of the central bank also cannot unilaterally cut the federal funds rate. That is decided by the Federal Open Market Committee.
Trump said on Wednesday that he has a “lot of good people” he could appoint to replace Powell and specifically mentioned Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, though the president praised the work he is doing in his current job.
While the president said he was not planning on firing Powell, when pressed by a reporter on whether he had ruled it out, Trump responded “I don’t rule out anything, but I think it’s highly unlikely.”
Republicans fueled the rumors that the president was preparing to fire Powell after he met with lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday.
“I’m 99% sure firing is imminent,” wrote Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on X. She then wrote “Hearing Jerome Powell is getting fired! From a very serious source.”
The president denied he showed a drafted letter to Republicans during the meeting but said he talked about the “concept of firing him” and that they joked about it.
“I said ‘what do you think?’ Almost every one of them said I should, but I’m more conservative than they are,” Trump said.
The stock market went on a wild ride amid reports that Trump would fire Powell. Stocks dropped as the rumors spread, but started to rebound after the president rejected that he would.
