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Trump vs. the Fed, briefly explained
A post is not a crisis — yet.
Patrick Reis was the senior politics and ideas editor at Vox. He previously worked at Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, Politico, National Journal, and Seattle’s Real Change News. As a reporter and editor, he has worked on coverage of campaign politics, economic policy, the federal death penalty, climate change, financial regulation, and homelessness.
Welcome to The Logoff: Today I want to add a little perspective to President Donald Trump’s attack on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, which made headlines but might not be a crisis — at least, not yet.
What’s the latest? Trump criticized Powell today, urging the central bank head to lower interest rates and saying his “termination cannot come fast enough!” Powell had said Wednesday that Trump’s tariffs could slow growth and drive up inflation — an analysis that is shared by the vast majority of economists but contradicts Trump’s promises about his trade policies.
Can Trump get rid of Powell? The law that created the Fed says the chair can only be fired for cause, such as corruption or incompetence, and Supreme Court precedent agrees. The administration, however, argues the Constitution gives the president the right to fire employees at independent agencies, such as the Fed, at will. If Trump tried, the fight would likely end up in court. Otherwise, Powell’s four-year term as Fed chair ends in May 2026.
So, is this a big deal? A real move to fire Powell would be a power grab with huge implications. Fed independence is critical for economic stewardship, and trying to seize control of central banks is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. But Trump has posted about the Fed, often to disparage and threaten Powell, more than 100 times since nominating him in 2017 — yet he has never taken any action to fire him. For now, at least, there’s no evidence it’ll be different this time.
And the administration seems to see value in the Fed’s independence: When Trump in February moved to consolidate power over all of the executive branch’s independent agencies, his order specifically exempted the Fed’s authority to set interest rates.
So what’s the big picture? In another administration and era, the president demanding that the Fed lower interest rates would be a major — and newsworthy — breach of norms. But in a sign of how far we’ve moved from that baseline, Trump’s attacks on Powell are, at this point, standard operating procedure.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
No, scientists didn’t announce the discovery of alien life in a new paper unveiled yesterday. But they did find a sign of a gas that could be evidence of alien life. And for me, even the search for extraterrestrial life is fun to think about. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.
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