- Trump says he won’t fire Fed Chair Powell but hints at replacing him soon.
- He continues pressuring the Fed to cut rates, calling the current pace “too late.”
- The Fed is expected to hold rates steady as it weighs trade tensions and inflation risks.
President Trump said on Sunday that he’s not planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before his term runs out—though his comments left the door kinda… half-open. Technically, Powell’s term ends in May 2026, but Trump didn’t exactly shut down the idea of replacing him soon. “I get to change him very quickly anyway,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press. “It’s in a very short period of time.”
That’s a bit of a shift. Earlier rumblings suggested Trump might try to oust Powell before the end of his term—something that’s, legally speaking, shaky at best. Those earlier whispers rattled markets pretty hard, so this walkback might be damage control. Still, Trump’s tone hasn’t softened. Not even a little.
He keeps hammering Powell over interest rates, saying the Fed is dragging its feet at a moment when cuts are “already late.” And if you’ve been watching Trump for a while, you know this isn’t new. He nominated Powell back in 2017, but turned on him quick when rate cuts didn’t happen fast enough.
Politics, Pressure, and the Fed’s Tightrope
In the interview, Trump basically said the board should push Powell to act: “We are at a perfect time,” he insisted, urging the Fed to drop rates now before it’s “too late”—a phrase he keeps going back to on repeat. And while this is all playing out publicly, the Fed is trying to keep its cool.
A rate decision’s due this Wednesday, and most economists are betting the Fed holds steady for now. They’re still watching the fallout from Trump’s trade war strategy. Tariffs could hurt job growth—which would normally support a rate cut—but on the flip side, they could also nudge inflation higher, and that’d usually call for raising rates. So yeah… it’s a bit of a mess.
The latest jobs numbers showed decent hiring, so there’s not a ton of pressure to act urgently. But Trump’s commentary isn’t making the Fed’s balancing act any easier. And while he may not fire Powell, the push to control the Fed’s direction is far from over.
