Trump says he won’t try ousting Fed’s Powell in June interview
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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, whom Trump said he would consider for treasury secretary, recently praised some of Trump’s positions and policies.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Donald Trump will not try ousting Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell before the central banker’s term ends and would consider JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon for treasury secretary if he wins the Nov 5 election, the former president told Bloomberg in an interview published on July 16.
JP Morgan declined to comment on his remarks. Mr Powell’s term as chair expires in 2026, and his seat on the Fed board of governors expires in 2028.
The interview was conducted in late June, according to Bloomberg.
Mr Powell said on July 15 he has no plans to leave his post as head of the US central bank before his term expires. He was first appointed to the Fed board of governors by former president Barack Obama. Trump picked him to lead the central bank, a post he assumed in early 2018.
Trump turned against him soon after, railing against the interest rate hikes that the Fed delivered during Mr Powell’s first year at the helm.
Trump went so far as to discuss firing the Fed chief, although aides later said he came to a conclusion that he likely did not have the power to do so.
That did not stop Trump from continuing to threaten Mr Powell throughout his presidency, a practice President Joe Biden, Trump’s successor, has refrained from during his term.
Trump said in the Bloomberg interview that the Federal Reserve should abstain from cutting rates before the November elections in which the Republican presidential candidate faces Democrat Biden.
Mr Powell has been asked repeatedly over the last week whether the election would play into the Fed’s decision on whether to cut rates. He said again on July 15 that he and other central bank policymakers do not take politics into account in their decision-making.
On Mr Dimon, Trump said he was considering him for the top job at the Treasury Department. Trump had until recently been critical of Mr Dimon.
Last year, Trump called Mr Dimon a “Highly overrated Globalist” on his Truth Social platform.
Mr Dimon, like many other corporate executives, condemned the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters who made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to Mr Biden.
However, recently, Dimon has praised some of Trump’s positions and policies.
“Take a step back, be honest. He was kind of right about (military alliance) Nato, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China,” Mr Dimon told CNBC earlier this year.
“He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues.”
Trump also said in the interview that he would reduce the corporate tax rate to as low as 15 per cent.
In addition to targeting China for new tariffs of anywhere from 60 to 100 per cent, he added that he would impose a 10 per cent across-the-board tariff on imports from other countries, citing complaints about foreign nations not buying enough US goods. REUTERS
