Trump says he would not reappoint Powell to lead Federal Reserve

Former President Trump said in an interview aired Thursday that, if reelected to the White House in 2024, he would not reappoint Jerome Powell to lead the Federal Reserve for another term.

“I would not reappoint him. I thought he was always late, whether it was good or bad, but he was always late,” Trump told Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow, who served as a top economic official in the Trump White House.

Trump, who first nominated Powell to lead the central bank in 2018, soured on the chairman late in his first term as Powell and the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates.

President Biden nominated Powell for a second four-year term as chairman of the Fed after taking office, and the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 80-19 last May. His current term expires in 2026.

“I was surprised he was reappointed. Probably he got reappointed because they knew I didn’t like him much,” Trump said in the Fox Business interview, which was taped Wednesday. “I’m not a fan of Jay Powell.”

Powell, a Republican, joined the Fed board in 2012 on the appointment of former President Obama and was picked by Trump in 2017 to succeed now-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. He won broad bipartisan support over his first term for resisting Trump’s pressure to slash interest rates while the economy was strong and for the Fed’s largely successful response to stabilize financial markets during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.