Fed Chairman Jerome Powell Clearly Opposes Trump’s Economic Agenda and Needs to be Removed
President Trump has learned a lot since he first announced his run for the White House in 2015. While Trump dealt with unloyal bureaucrats, an FBI that weaponized against him early in his transition to be President in 2016, and sham impeachment, the 47th President is not repeating the same mistakes he made in his first term. Trump did not get to where he is by making the same mistake twice.
One of the biggest issues Trump faced in his first term was cabinet members and bureaucrats who did not support his agenda. National Security Adviser Bolton and Secretary of State Tillerson were two examples of cabinet leaders who clearly did not support Trump or his America-first agenda. The President has rectified this issue in his second term, appointing highly qualified and loyal cabinet members. Still, one key position where a leader is clearly not aligned with Trump and his policies is with the Fed Chairman.
While obviousy the independence of the Fed from the executive branch is an important part the American system, the Presidetn and the Chairman of the Central Bank still need to be aligned on policy. When Bill Clinton worked with the Republican Congress to cut spending, that enabled then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to lower interest rates. President Clinton met frequently with Greenspan to coordinate fiscal and monetary policy at that time.
There have been multiple credible reports that Powell does not like Trump and that the Fed chairman does not support the President’s MAGA agenda. Aurel HIzmo, a principal economist with the Fed, told a journalist last year that Powell views himself as part of the resistance to Trump and that the head of the Central Bank wants to be known as someone who holds the line against the President.
This is why Powell’s recent comments that Trump’s tariffs will likely both slow growth and cause more inflation should be warning signs for the White House. The price of oil has fallen by nearly 15 percent since the President announced retaliatory tariffs against countries that have been ripping the US off for decades, the evidence is clear that in the short-term Trump’s actions are more likely to cause prices to fall, not rise. Major companies such as GM have also recently stated that corporations intend to shift manufacturing more to the United States.
While, obviously, Trump’s actions in the short-term are likely to cause some prices to rise, the long-term purpose of his policies is to bring manufacturing back to the US and increase investment in this country in addition to helping American businesses export into markets that many countries essentially use tariffs to keep our goods out of. Powell’s statement on Trump’s tariffs is one-sided and inaccurate. Trump enacted tariffs in his first term and the President oversaw an economy with robust growth and almost no inflation. Powell also never made any public comment about Biden’s decision to leave the tariffs Trump put into effect in his first term in place even when inflation was skyrocketing.
The same pathetic legacy media that never gave Trump any credit for the stock market hitting record highs when he was President in his first term is now blaming him for why the market has sold off, and many economists like Powell also clearly have an agenda against the 47th President as well. The recent market sell-off was also very moderate, and stocks are still far higher than where equities were when Trump first took office in 2016. The stock market is also not an indication of how most middle and working-class families are doing. Most middle and low-income individuals were crushed by Obama and Biden’s policies even as markets hit record highs under both failed leaders. While the Central Bank should obviously remain independent, Trump needs a Fed Chairman who is aligned with his worldview and eager to work with him, the President should seek to remove Powell for cause, as he is allowed to do under the constitution.
