US President Donald Trump said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s termination from his position cannot come quickly enough, arguing that the US central bank should have lowered interest rates already this year, and in any case should do so now.
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Trump, derisively nicknaming the Fed chairman he nominated in his first term as “Too Late”, wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday morning that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”
It was not immediately clear if the post meant Trump was referring to the scheduled end of Powell’s term, or if Trump was seeking to remove Powell as chair. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Powell’s term as chair runs into May 2026, while his term as a governor lasts until February 2028.
Trump’s ability to remove top officials at agencies that had long been viewed as having a measure of independence from the White House has come into acute focus in recent months, after the administration dismissed senior officials at the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board.
The firings are the most direct challenge yet to a 1935 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for agency independence. Powell made reference on Wednesday to a current Supreme Court case with regard to the removal of the NLRB and MSPB officials.