“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, a former top economic official in the Trump White House, in an interview that aired Thursday.
Former President Obama appointed Powell to the Fed board in 2012, and Trump picked Powell, a Republican, to succeed now-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in 2017.
Trump formally nominated Powell to lead the Fed in 2018, but he soured on the chairman late in his first term as the central bank hiked interest rates.
Powell won broad bipartisan support during his first four-year term for resisting pressure from Trump to slash interest rates while the economy was strong.
He also received credit on Capitol Hill for the Fed’s largely successful response to stabilize financial markets during the pandemic.
President Biden nominated Powell for a second four-year term, 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. “I’m not a fan of Jay Powell.”
The Hill’s Brett Samuels has more here.
