President Trump floated the idea of firing Jerome Powell — whom he first appointed Federal Reserve chair — earlier this week, after years of on-and-off criticism over interest rates.

In 1997, billionaire Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein hired a then-relatively unknown member of the George H.W. Bush administration named Jerome Powell. Over the course of eight years, Powell led the private equity firm's industrial group and was a partner.

After rumors spread that he was about to sack the Federal Reserve leader and stocks dropped, the president told reporters that he wasn't "planning on doing anything."

President Trump says he has finally found a way to achieve his goal of removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing him of mismanaging the U.S. central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation project.

Jerome Powell has been the Federal Reserve Chair since February 2018. Trump nominated Powell in 2017, but now calls for him to resign. Bessent is

His comments follow President Donald Trump’s intensified criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, accusing him of undermining the US economy with high interest rates, while simultaneously unveiling sweeping new tariffs targeting Canada, the European Union, Mexico, and Brazil.

The Federal Reserve’s political independence — the sense that the world’s most powerful central bank makes decisions based on economic conditions, not short-term political considerations — is a critical national asset. President Donald Trump is eroding it in ways that could be bad for the country and his own agenda.