President Donald Trump is talking about firing Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve. Powell’s termination “cannot come fast enough,” Trump wrote this week on Truth Social. But the firing of Powell could upend Wall Street’s stability in what is already a turbulent time for the markets.
Trump and Powell are on a “collision course,” said The Wall Street Journal. Trump wants Powell to cut interest rates to encourage economic growth and “cushion the blow from his tariffs.” But the Fed fears cutting rates would give a new spark to inflation, leaving Powell stuck with “difficult trade-offs” in deciding how to proceed. “It is the most complex hand any Fed chair has been dealt,” former Rep. Patrick McHenry said to the Journal. But even many of Trump’s fellow Republicans are leery of firing Powell, the Journal said, seeing it as a “nuclear option” that comes with “enormous downside risk.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) believes the market will “crash” if Trump fires Powell, said CNBC. If Powell “can be fired by the president of the United States, it will crash markets,” she said Thursday. It would appear that Trump’s advisers share her concerns. Within the White House, “there is an effort to try to keep him from doing this,” said New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman to CNN.
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“Trump needs someone to blame,” said David Frum at The Atlantic. The president’s trade war “against almost every country on Earth” is faltering, producing a backlash even from his supporters. Trump “needs an excuse” for the failure, setting up Powell to take the fall. It is an old story: During his first term, markets slumped after Trump slapped tariffs on China. He became angry when the Fed did not lower interest rates to “rescue him from his own mistake.” As a businessman, Trump’s bankers often bailed him out of his bankruptcies. “He seems to believe that the Federal Reserve should do the same for his presidency.”
The dispute between Trump and Powell is a “reminder that monetary policy can’t make up for economic policy errors,” said The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Firing Powell would “tee up a protracted legal fight,” which in turn would spark a new round of “market turmoil” while the world waits on a court ruling. “That’s the last fight Trump needs right now.”
What next?
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is privately warning the White House that firing Powell “would risk destabilizing financial markets,” said Politico. That’s because the Fed’s reputation for making decisions based on the economy, rather than “short-term politics,” is a “key underpinning of the U.S.’s global financial reputation.” So Powell’s job may be safe for now. “I don’t think he’ll do it,” an anonymous official said of Trump to Politico, “but frankly, this is a grenade with the pin pulled.”
