Trump studying if removing Powell is option, Hassett says

Josh Wingrove and Hadriana Lowenkron, Bloomberg News on Apr 18, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is studying whether he’s able to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, his top economist said Friday, a day after the president publicly criticized the head of the central bank for not moving fast enough to slash interest rates.

“The president and his team will continue to study that,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday when asked by a reporter if removing Powell was an option.

Hassett went on to suggest that the Fed under Powell, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, had acted politically to benefit Democrats.

“The policy of this Federal Reserve was to raise rates the minute President Trump was elected last time, to say that the supply-side tax cuts that were going to be inflationary,” Hassett said.

Fed officials opted not to go “on TV and at IMF meetings and warn about the terrible inflation from the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden, and the obvious runaway spending from Joe Biden was textbook inflationary,” Hassett continued. “And then they cut rates right ahead of the election.”

On Thursday, Trump repeatedly aired his criticism of Powell — and suggested he had the ability to remove the Fed chair — while sidestepping questions on whether it was a path he would pursue.

“I’m not happy with him. I let him know it. And oh, if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The president reiterated his call for Powell to lower interest rates, downplaying concerns about inflation, during an Oval Office event on Friday.

“If we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down,” Trump said. “He should bring them down.”

Hassett told reporters his own preference was to focus on “the policy, rather than the personalities.”

“If you think that it’s unacceptable for President Trump to be frustrated with the policy history of the Fed, then I think that you got some explaining to do,” he said.

(Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.)