Trump’s Next Authoritarian Target: The Federal Reserve
After the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, met with Donald Trump at the White House Thursday, the bank took the unprecedented step of releasing a statement asserting its independence.
The statement said that the Fed has an independent, nonpartisan role using economic data to set monetary policy.
“Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook,” the statement said regarding Powell’s meeting with Trump.
The Fed added that Powell told Trump that he and other officials “will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.”
Such a statement is rare from the Fed, which normally remains tight-lipped. Trump has made no secret of his displeasure with Powell for not cutting interest rates at the president’s request, and at one point Trump threatened to fire Powell to get his way. Trump later tempered his threat, but not without spooking international markets and worrying investors.
Powell also has been honest about the negative economic effects on Trump’s tariffs, prompting the president to level insults at Powell from his Truth Social account. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t dispute the Fed’s statement Thursday, but noted that Trump “did say that the Fed chair is making a mistake by not lowering rates.”
Leavitt confirms that Trump met with Powell today and encouraged him to lower interest rates pic.twitter.com/Fcvd1a8k6M
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2025
Powell’s statement suggests that Trump challenged the Fed’s authority during their meeting. Did Trump revive his threat to fire Powell? What will the president do if Powell stands his ground on interest rates? With Trump being dealt two major setbacks over his tariffs in the past 24 hours, he might get impatient and angry.