‘Whatever’: Trump now OK with Fed holding or raising rates as long as Powell not chair

‘Whatever’: Trump now OK with Fed holding or raising rates as long as Powell not chair Trump spent the first year and a half of his term bullying former chair Jerome Powell over his failure to lower interest rates fast enough - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments After a nearly 18-month campaign of bullying and harassment against former Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell over his failure to artificially juice the U.S. economy by lowering interest rates, President Donald Trump says he no longer cares if Powell’s hand-picked successor does the same. Trump told reporters in France that it’s “alright” with him if the central bank leaves rates alone or even raises them under the leadership of Kevin Warsh, Trump’s selection to succeed Powell as the Fed’s board chair. Asked about the Fed’s decision, he replied: “Whatever.” "It's hard to believe. It just keeps the country down and it's so, it's so, unusual. But we have a very good guy over there right now so I'm guided by what he wants,” Trump said. The president’s comments came after the Fed’s Open Markets committee kept its key rate unchanged at its first meeting of Warsh’s chairmanship. The bank warned that they could even potentially support a rate increase later this year in a set of quarterly projections indicating at least half of the committee is considering raising rates by two quarter-points or more. It’s a sharp change from March, when no policymakers penciled in a hike and the committee as a whole forecast one cut in 2026. The change is an acknowledgement that inflation is at its highest level in three years and many officials have said in recent speeches that if inflation doesn’t decline, higher rates may be necessary in the coming months. Warsh took control at the central bank on May 22 after the Senate confirmed him for a four-year term ending in 2030, a year after Trump will leave office. At an East Room swearing-in ceremony featuring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on hand to administer the oath of office, he backtracked on months of attacks against Powell by claiming he wants the central bank to operate without political interference. After calling the Fed “a pillar of the world financial system” and describing the country’s central bank as “highly respected,” Trump said: “I want Kevin to be totally independent, I want them to be independent and just do a great job. Don't look at me, don't look at anybody, just do your own thing and do a great job. “With the support and strong and wise chairmanship at the Federal Reserve, so important America's future will truly be unlimited with Kevin, with Kevin at the helm,” Trump added as he called Warsh “a special person.” Trump’s sudden about-face on the Fed’s independence comes after years of attacks on the central bank — and on Warsh’s predecessor, over Powell’s refusal to go along with lower interest rates that would serve political purposes by artificially juicing the U.S. economy. Despite having appointed Powell to the chairmanship during his first term in the White House, Trump quickly turned on him on social media and in numerous interviews. After one August 2019 Powell speech that led Trump to take offense, he wrote on Twitter: My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?" He later berated the Fed for not matching negative interest rates utilized by Europe and Japan, tweeting that the Fed board at the time had "no 'guts,' no sense, no vision!" His attacks on the central bank — and on Powell — continued during his 2024 campaign, during which he accused Powell of being “political” when the board looked to be cutting interest rates as inflation cooled during the last year of the Biden administration. Once Trump returned to power, he shifted from mere rhetoric to attempts at action that would have compromised the bank’s independence by allowing him to stack the bank’s board with loyalists. He continued to bully Powell on social media and in public remarks, and even went so far as to order a Department of Justice investigation into whether Powell had lied to Congress about cost overruns in a long-running project to renovate the bank’s Washington headquarters. Trump also attempted to fire Biden appointee Lisa Cook based on bogus mortgage fraud allegations, though that move has been put on hold with Cook remaining in her job while the Supreme Court considers whether the attempted firing was justified under the law. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments