Former President Donald Trump said this week that he would not renominate current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, marking a potentially large change at the central bank. The former president’s comments come as many Republicans blame a combination of spending under President Joe Biden and policy from the Federal Reserve for persistent high inflation.
Trump made the comment during an interview on Fox News. He told host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser, that he would “not reappoint him.”
The former president said that Powell “was always running late, whether it was good or bad, but he was always running late. I was surprised he was reappointed.”
Trump nominated Powell to his current position in 2018 and he was nominated for a second term by Biden in 2022. Should Trump be elected next year, his term would coincide with the end of Powell’s second term.
“Probably, he got reappointed because they knew I didn’t like him much. I felt that he was not good, in fact, I was very tough on him,” Trump said.
Trump says he would not reappoint Jerome Powell pic.twitter.com/ev4DbQN1LI
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 17, 2023
The former president said that if he was not critical of the Fed Chair that the country would “have had much higher interest rates for much longer.”
The president concluded by saying that he is “not a fan of Jay Powell.”
Powell said earlier this year that during Trump’s tenure, the former president would call him. However, he said that Biden does not do the same.
The current Federal Reserve chair is one of the leading figures criticized over the current high inflation, alongside Biden.
Powell said earlier this year that the central bank would consider another rate hike to battle the inflation affecting the country since 2021.
Powell said earlier this year that inflationary pressures “continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.” Furthermore, the Federal Reserve initially dismissed the rising inflation, stating that it was transitory.
However, the increase in inflation has been one of the largest challenges facing the United States in recent decades.
