The Pied Piper of America is at it again
If it was some other nation, we would be laughing at all of this. But it's not.
President Donald Trump attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on April 17th for not cutting interest rates and said he could fire him if he wanted to, renewing a threat from his first term that could cause a major legal showdown over the issue of the central bank’s long-standing political independence.
His precise quote was “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.,” “I’m not happy with him.” Trump made those comments from the Oval Office while taking questions from reporters during a visit with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. On April 17th, Trump posted “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” This week, his criticism of the FED Chairman dropped to a new level as the president referred to Chairman Powell as a "major loser" and "Mr Too Late".
These comments by Trump, of course, raised a lot of eyebrows. Particularly since the The Federal Reserve Act clearly states that members of the central bank’s seven-strong Board of Governors can be removed only “for cause,” which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court (Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935)) as serious misconduct and other violations, not policy disagreements.
Trump seems incensed that the FED has not chosen to lower interest rates because he believes such an action would help the economy, which is beginning to show signs of distress under the heavy-handed approach his administration has been taking. Yet he is, in fact, the very reason that the Fed has become much more reticent to reduce borrowing costs. This is related to the fear that the broad-based tariffs Mr. Trump has announced on nearly every U.S. trading partner will reignite inflation and slow economic growth.
Moreover, despite Trump's contention, there is no real need to lower rates at the moment. Most Fed officials believe that the FED can afford to delay taking any action on interest rates because the relative strength of the U.S. economy that Trump inherited from the Biden Administration is still in place.
A week ago, It appeared that America's Pied Piper was moving us toward yet another constitutional crisis, but this time, he backed down. On April 22, 2025 Trump told reporters in the Oval Office "I have no intention of firing him."
And so goes the world's greatest clown show. Authoritarianism and fascism, mixed with misdirection, obfuscation, outright lies, ignorance of the Constitution and the Rule of Law, throwing relationships with our allies into the wind while forging new relationships with our enemies, all blended together with a three-ring circus of wholly unqualified cabinet members. If it was some other nation, we would be laughing at all of this. But it's not. But one has to wonder if we are witnessing the destruction of our uniquely American form of government.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-powell-federal-reserve-fed-termination-b6148c8048dda538a6ca3b5a270fd09e
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/politics/trump-jerome-powell-fed.html