Trump believes he has power to replace Powell at Fed
US President Donald Trump believes that he has the power to replace the Federal Reserve’s chief Jerome Powell and demote him to governor.
According to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter, Trump was not planning on demoting Powell yet, but neither was he pleased with the Fed's decision thus far not to lower interest rates and said in October that the central bank had “gone crazy” under Powell.
And in February, he reportedly went as far as to ask White House lawyers to explore options for removing him.
“I think the law is clear that I have a four-year term, and I fully intend to serve it,” Powell said during his post-meeting press conference in Washington on Wednesday.
But the White House's lawyers think that there is a way to demote the head of the Fed, but there had been some disagreement in the Counsel’s office, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The report comes after the Fed said on Wednesday that it stood ready to support the economic expansion in the face growing uncertainty, but left them unchanged for the moment.