President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell if he does not step down from the central bank.
“I’ll have to fire him,” Trump said on Fox Business. “If he’s not leaving on time.”
Trump also refused to distance himself from the Justice Department’s criminal probe into the Fed’s $2.5 billion office renovation, which prosecutors have used to ratchet up pressure on the Fed even as its legal standing has crumbled in court. Asked whether he would direct the department to stand down from the investigation, which a federal judge last month found to be part of a broader White House pressure campaign, Trump declined.
“Whether it’s incompetence, corruption or both I think you have to find out,” he said, referring to the renovation inquiry. “I have to find out.”
The comments came a day after prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington appeared without warning at the Fed’s headquartersseeking a tour of an active construction site, The Washington Post previously reported — the latest escalation in a pressure campaign that has raised alarm among central bank watchers.
The central bank has denied any wrongdoing in the renovation, and a federal judge last month quashed a pair of grand jury subpoenas, finding that prosecutors had no evidence of a crime.
Trump’s threat to fire Powell also raised immediate legal questions. Fed governors generally can’t be removed except for cause, and Powell has said he has not plans to leave the agency until the probe is finished.
Wednesday’s comments were also a fresh complication for Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor Trump tapped in January to replace Powell. Trump shrugged off suggestions that the Justice Department inquiry could imperil Warsh’s confirmation.
Powell’s tenure as chairman expires in mid-May but he can elect to stay on as one of seven Fed governors through early 2028.
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