Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s Recent Statement Shows He is Actively Trying to Undermine Trump
President Trump learned a lot from his first term. When the former real estate mogul arrived in D.C., he didn’t know the pathetic depths the left would go to in order to undermine his administration. In Trump’s first 2 years in power, the FBI targeted General Flynn, Mueller conducted an absurd sham investigation for 2 years, and the president also dealt with 2 absurd impeachments. The President deals with disruption from both the Democrats, his own party, and even government employees in his administration.
Trump made sure to pick both competent individuals and people who were fully on board with his MAGA agenda to run his cabinet. When the President served in his first term, many of his picks to run departments weren’t even aware of what his governing philosophy would be, and some cabinet members such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clearly didn’t agree with Trump’s approach to foreign policy. The President picked people he knew and trusted to help carry out the agenda he ran and won on in the 2024 election.
The only person in a key leadership role who is still clearly trying under Trump and his policy agenda is Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell has made several bizarre decisions that were aimed at undermining the President even going back to his first term, and the Fed chair’s recent comments about Trump’s economic policies are unacceptable. Powell raised interest rates aggressively in 2018 even though there was only modest inflation, causing markets to fall significantly and hurting Republicans in the mid-term elections. There was also a Federal Reserve employee caught on camera saying that Powell disliked the President and his policy views.
Powell’s past actions make his inappropriate recent comments criticizing the tariffs Trump recently enacted in public more suspect. Even if the Fed Chair disagrees with the President’s policy decisions, actively undermining the policies of Trump by saying that tariffs will slow growth and be inflationary is not the role of the head of the Central Bank. When Clinton worked with Republicans to reduce the deficit in 1992, he formed an important partnership with past Fed Chairman Allen Greenspan to lower rates, and this working relationship was key in the 1990s.
While the Fed should obviously remain independent from the Federal government, the Fed chairman should not be actively saying or taking actions to undermine the President. Powell’s decision to not lower interest rates despite saying he believes Trump’s actions will likely undermine growth is also bizarre. The price of oil and other commodities have come down significantly since the President announced his reciprocal tariffs, the Fed Chair should be cutting rates. Powell also never spoke out against tariffs being inflationary when Biden was President and prices were rising significantly even though the former President left the tariffs Trump put in place during his first term.
The President was careful to make sure that he wouldn’t deal with the same issues in his second term that he faced in his first administration. Trump’s cabinet picks have been much better in his second term, and the President has also been more careful to eliminate leaks as the recent probe of the minor signal app issue showed. Powell is the last person in a leadership position who is still clearly trying to undermine the President with his actions and statements. While the Fed Chairman’s term does not end until April of 2026, Trump likely does have the legal authority to remove Powell, and he should take that action. The public spoke clearly in November of 2024 and while the left and the President’s opponents are trying to rely on the courts since they can’t win elections, the President’s strong public support should help him prevail in a battle with the Fed.
