President Donald Trump said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s termination from his position can’t come quickly enough, arguing that the US central bank should have lowered interest rates already this year, and in any case should do so now. Trump, derisively nicknaming the Fed chairman he nominated in his first term as “Too Late,” wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform Thursday morning that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”
Powell’s term as chair runs into May 2026, while his term as a governor lasts until February 2028. Trump’s comments come a day after Powell, speaking in Chicago, reiterated that the Fed isn’t in a rush to cut rates and instead is awaiting greater clarity on the economy.
The president’s ability to remove top officials at agencies that had long been viewed as having a measure of independence from the White House has come into acute focus in recent months, after the administration dismissed senior officials at the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board.
The firings are the most direct challenge yet to a 1935 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for agency independence. Powell made reference Wednesday to a current Supreme Court case with regard to the removal of the NLRB and MSPB officials.
Trump’s remarks came just before the European Central Bank lowered their deposit rate by a quarter point to 2.25%. Trump mentioned the ECB’s repeated cuts in his post. “And yet, ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!’ Trump wrote.
NN: These 2 hate each others guts. They are at loggerheads. This will end badly