US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he will not try to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell when he takes office in January.
“No, I don’t think so,” Trump told Kristen Welker on NBC News’, when asked if he would seek to replace Powell, who has clashed with him in the past over interest rate levels. "I think if I told him to [go], he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn't," Trump told Welker, according to Reuters.
Last month, Powell said he would refuse to leave his post early if Trump tried to fire him, arguing that firing him, or any other Fed governor, before the end of their terms was “not permitted by law.”
Trump appointed Powell as Fed chair in early 2018 to replace Janet Yellen, who later became President Joe Biden’s Treasury secretary. Biden has reappointed Powell for his current term.
But the relationship between Trump and Powell has become strained, with Trump repeatedly attacking the Fed and its chairman during his first term over the central bank’s monetary policy choices.
Trump’s attacks on the Fed come after decades of presidents avoiding direct criticism of the central bank, which operates with legal independence and is subject to congressional oversight.
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