Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday said that he would not step down from his position if President-elect Donald Trump asked him to do so.
During his presidential campaign, Trump floated the idea of removing Powell from his position at the central bank. Powell was nominated by Trump during his first term in office, but the pair did clash during Trump’s presidency.
Later in his news conference, Powell was asked whether he believes the president has the power to intervene in the Federal Reserve by demoting or firing him.
“Not permitted under the law,” Powell responded.
The questions and answers were provided after the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee decided to lower interest rates by 0.25 percentage points amid federal data showing that inflation has been cooling in recent months.
Officials lowered the benchmark overnight interest rate to a range of 4.50 percent to 4.75 percent, which was widely expected. The decision was unanimous.
When asked about Trump’s previous statements, Powell said, “I’m not going to get into any political things here today.”
In 2019, Trump was critical of Powell for how he handled interest rates.
At the time, Trump wanted the Fed to bring down the effective federal funds rate to zero so that the United States could pay off its debts.
In June, Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek regarding Powell’s position: “I would let him serve it out, especially if I thought he was doing the right thing.”
Following the Fed’s decision to again lower interest rates, Powell signaled that the presidential election results won’t have any impact on the central bank’s decision-making process.
“In the near term, the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” he said on Thursday.
Powell said he believes the U.S. economy “is strong overall and has made significant progress toward our goals over the past two years,” adding that “strength in the economy and the labor market can be maintained with inflation moving sustainably down to 2 percent.”
In September, he said the central bank would likely stick with quarter-percentage-point interest rate cuts moving forward and was not “in a hurry” after new data boosted confidence in ongoing economic growth and consumer spending.
“This is not a committee that feels like it is in a hurry to cut rates quickly,” Powell told a National Association for Business Economics conference. “If the economy evolves as expected, that would be two more cuts” by year’s end, for a total reduction of half a percentage point more, he said.
Trump, who defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, campaigned on promises ranging from tariffs on imports to a crackdown on illegal immigration, which could have broader impacts on the U.S. economy.
The day after Trump’s victory, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up by 1,500 points, or more than 3.5 percent. By Thursday, the Dow maintained nearly the same levels.
