Powell Shows Why Fed Independence Matters in a Turbulent America
After months of avoiding conflict with Trump, the head of the Federal Reserve shared his views on tariffs, spending cuts and threats to central bank autonomy.
Getting into it.
Photographer: Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is pushing back against President Donald Trump after deftly avoiding confrontation for months. In a question and answer session Wednesday, Powell portrayed chaotically implemented tariffs as plainly bad for the economy; slammed the approach taken by the Department of Government Efficiency; and issued a legal defense for why he thinks he can withstand any attempt by Trump to fire him. At a time of rising concern about Fed independence, he did us all a favor by showing he’s laser-focused on the central bank’s core goals and will fight to be able to keep it that way.
Predictably, Trump immediately proved this point again on Thursday. In a post on Truth Social, he said the Fed should have cut interest rates already and “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”