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A republican member of the senatorial committee who oversees the federal reserve struck Donald Trump's attacks on Jay Powell, saying that no president has the power to dismiss the head of the American central bank.
“I do not think that the president, no president, has the right to withdraw the president of the federal reserve,” said John Kennedy, a republican of Louisiana who sits on the senatoric banking committee on Sunday. “I think the federal reserve should be independent.”
The remarks come only a few days after Trump reported that he thought he had the power to shoot PowellTelling journalists in the oval office Thursday: “If I want it, it will be very quickly, believe me.”
Relations between the US President and the President of the Central Bank which he appointed are increasingly tense in the face of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates since Trump returned to the White House in January.
The prices, including Powell, say that Trump's prices threaten to work the growth and increase prices – placing the Fed in what his leader described Wednesday as a “difficult scenario” in which he would be forced to defend his references to fight inflation above all.
The remarks of the president of the Fed, who swore to remain in office until the end of his mandate in May 2026, led Trump to go to Truth Social Thursday to say that “the termination of Powell cannot come quickly enough!”
Kennedy defended the Fed's attention on Sunday on the inflation to defeat, saying: “My experience with Jay Powell is that he has tiger blood. He will do what he thinks is fair, and he is not going in history as president of the federal reserve which allowed inflation to become wild like a walking hare, and he will do what he thinks he did. ”
Inflation in Personal consumer expenses has reached its highest level since the early 80s in 2022 and remains above the target of 2% of the central bank at 2.5%.
A few civil servants At the central bank, prices could increase annual prices up to 5% later this year – if Trump reintroduces withdrawals on the scale announced on April 2.
Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed, said on CBS on Sunday that many companies made “preventive purchases” of products that could be affected by prices, which means that “activity might seem artificially high” before a drop in summer.
Asked about Trump's attacks on Powell, Goolsbee noted that in countries where the independence of the central bank had been challenged “the inflation rate is higher, the growth is slower, the labor market is worse”.
“I strongly hope that we do not move to an environment where monetary independence is questioned,” said Goolsbee. “It would undermine the credibility of the Fed.”
