Donald Trump’s jabs at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his push to fire board member Lisa Cook are borne out of his quest for power, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle says.
Ruhle, who is also a senior business correspondent for NBC News, said on Thursday’s episode of the Daily Beast Podcast that the president has become “incensed” by Powell’s independence in particular.
“It’s all about power,” Ruhle told host Joanna Coles when asked why Powell, a Republican who has resisted the president’s demand to lower interest rates, gets under the president’s skin.
“Since Donald Trump has taken office this second time, his number one goal is to exert power and influence. His biggest frustration during the first term were all those people in his first administration who said, ‘No, sir, you’re not allowed to do this. You know, this is for the American people. This is the rule of law.’ He hated that,” Ruhle said.
As an example of the no-holds-barred attitude in the White House this time around, Ruhle pointed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying last October that any Trump appointees must exhibit “fidelity and loyalty.”
“And minute by minute, day by day, that’s what Donald Trump has been focused on,” she said.
“And Jay Powell has truly been a standout, standalone—not thumbing his nose at Trump, but saying, ‘This is my job, this is what I’m going to do, and I don’t have to answer to you,’” the anchor of The 11th Hour added of the man whom Trump appointed chair during his first term. “And that absolutely incenses Trump.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Ruhle then mentioned how Trump announced he was firing Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors. Cook’s attorney Tuesday said he will file a lawsuit challenging the move, claiming it was illegal since the law states that members can only be fired “for cause.” Trump has alleged that Cook may have committed mortgage fraud. She hasn’t been charged.
Cook’s firing is less about her specifically and more to do with what Trump can get away with, Ruhle claimed.
“That’s what this whole thing is about, right? This is not about Lisa Cook. This is not about mortgage fraud. Let’s think about everything Donald Trump has done,” she explained.
“When he went after the law firms, was he really going after DEI? No. He was going after law firms that worked with people who didn’t like Trump,” she said.
“Is he really fighting campuses to root out antisemitism? No. He’s getting big settlements because that’s what he wants to get. When Walmart comes to him and says, ‘We’re going to have to raise our prices because of tariffs,’ he says, ‘I dare you, do not do that.’ All of this is about exerting power.”
Coles and Ruhle spoke about how Trump is now viewing the seven-member Board of Governors like the Supreme Court, where some are on his “team” and others aren’t.
But the Federal Reserve’s independence “is part of what makes America exceptional,” Ruhle said.
“It is why countries from around the world want to invest here. It’s why people from around the world want to start their businesses here. It is because we have three separate but equal branches of government and we have an independent central bank that doesn’t get influenced by a president who says, ‘Hey, let’s lower rates so we can juice the equity market because I want to get reelected’.”
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