White House says Trump is determined to fire Fed’s Powell no matter the cost

Donald Trump wants Jerome Powell gone, and the White House is making it official. On Friday, his top economic adviser confirmed that removing the Federal Reserve chair is now a live option.

“The president and his team will continue to study that matter,” said Kevin Hassett, head of the National Economic Council, during a press briefing, when asked if Powell’s dismissal is on the table. That answer followed Trump’s latest outburst just one day earlier, where he openly threatened to fire Powell.

Trump told reporters:

“I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.” 

The president nominated Jerome Powell to lead the Fed during his first term. Since then, Powell has raised interest rates, resisted Trump’s demands, and warned that the president’s trade policies could damage the economy.

Now, Federal Reserve governors are appointed for 14-year terms. Presidents can’t just fire them. To legally unseat Powell, Trump would have to prove “cause,” something the law reserves for misconduct or major failure.

Trump tests legal limits as frustration builds with Fed leadership

Trump’s administration is actively looking at how to bypass that rule. He’s already challenging similar restrictions in court. There’s a pending Supreme Court case where Trump is trying to remove limits on his power to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

If the court sides with him, the ruling could give him legal cover to boot Powell too. Powell himself mentioned the case during a talk at the Economic Club of Chicago, saying:

“That’s a case that people talk about a lot. I don’t think that that decision will apply to the Fed, but I don’t know. It’s a situation that we’re monitoring carefully.”

In 2018, the Fed raised rates many times, which infuriated Trump and made him consider firing Powell even back then. That threat spooked markets, but Trump eventually backed off. Now he’s back at it again, only this time he seems more serious, and he has fewer people trying to stop him.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been warning people inside the White House that firing Powell could wreck financial markets. Two people with direct knowledge of internal conversations told reporters that Bessent has delivered that message repeatedly.

But Trump isn’t listening. His anger is building because Powell isn’t cutting rates, and Trump thinks he should’ve done it a long time ago.

Behind the scenes, the president has been talking to others about replacing Powell before his four-year term ends in May 2026. He met with Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss the possibility.

Warsh reportedly advised Trump not to interfere with Powell’s tenure and warned him against removing the Fed chair. But the idea didn’t die there. Others close to Trump have brought up firing Powell as recently as early March, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

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