Adviser: Trump Will Let Powell Complete His Term As Fed Chair

According to a senior adviser to Trump who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss private discussions, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to let Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell complete the remaining portion of his term, which ends in May 2026.

Jerome Powell, the current chair of the Federal Reserve, has a four-year tenure that ends in 2026. According to a top Trump aide, President-elect Donald Trump plans to retain him in the position despite past disagreements with him.

Although the adviser warned that Trump can alter his mind at any time, he and Trump’s economic team now believe Powell should continue to lead the central bank as it pursues its interest rate-cutting agenda.

In 2018, Powell, a Republican who had previously worked in private equity and was a member of the central bank’s governing board, was chosen to the position by Trump. He was reappointed to a second four-year term by President Joe Biden.


Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs employee who was the director of economic policy in Trump’s first administration, is rumored to be interested in the position, although former Trump officials have stated that it is extremely unlikely that Cohn will be hired because he quit in protest of Trump’s steel tariffs.

Sources close to the Trump transition have cited Trump’s former chief economist, Kevin Hassett, and Kevin Warsh, who advised Trump during his first term and sat on the bank’s board of governors for five years. When asked if he planned to serve out the rest of his term in July, prior to Trump’s election, the Fed chair responded categorically, “Yes.”

No president has ever threatened to remove the Fed head from his position, and Trump has regularly expressed his unhappiness with Powell.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed for what he sees as its lack of transparency, arguing that the Fed has its policy conversations behind closed doors and only makes the notes public weeks later. According to CNN, Trump advisors have indicated that he would prefer the meetings to be held on camera and that the minutes and economic data be released in real time.

Trump and Powell’s had tense past

Powell and Trump had a number of disagreements during his first term, and the president-elect often threatened to remove him from office.

In 2018, following the Fed’s interest rate hike, Trump stated he was thinking of appointing a new Fed chair to succeed Powell. However, unless they violate the law, a president cannot simply remove a Fed chair after they have been confirmed.

Trump told reporters that he had the “right to remove [Powell] as chairman” once markets crashed at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. He also said that “he has, so far, made a lot of bad decisions, in my opinion.”

Trump has said more recently that the Fed chair is one of the easiest positions in the country. At an event last month organized by the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump remarked, “You come into the office once a month and you say, ‘Let’s flip a coin,’ and everyone talks about you like you’re a god.”

Trump also claimed that the Fed chair lowered rates “too much” as a result of his earlier threats to fire Powell “because he was keeping the rates too high.” Although the Fed chair has the most influence during meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee, other officials also have the authority to decide on the appropriate level of interest rates. Eleven additional Fed officials vote on changes to interest rates at each monetary policy meeting.