President Trump threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he does not step down – adding that he has no intention of ending the government’s criminal investigation into him.
“I’ll have to fire him, okay, if he’s not leaving on time. I’ve held back firing him. I’ve wanted to fire him, but I hate to be controversial,” Trump told Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” in an interview scheduled to air Wednesday morning.
“I want to be uncontroversial. But he will be fired,” the president added.
Powell’s term as chairman ends in May, though he has vowed to stay on as “chairman pro tem” if a successor is not confirmed by May 15 – despite Trump repeatedly bashing the chairman as “stupid” and “hardheaded” for not slashing interest rates faster.
He has also said he plans to remain on the board at least until the Department of Justice’s investigation into him and the Fed’s over-budget renovation project is over. He could serve as a governor through 2028.
But Trump said he has no plans to scrap the criminal probe into Powell – potentially setting the stage for a legal battle similar to his attempt to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, which has gone to the Supreme Court.
“Whether it’s incompetence, corruption or both, I think you have to find out. I really do. I think you have to find out,” Trump told Fox Business, referring to the investigation into Powell.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has pledged to appeal a court decision earlier this month that blocked government subpoenas targeting Powell.
Prosecutors from her office showed up unannounced Tuesday at the construction site for the Fed’s headquarters renovation, though they were denied access, according to the Wall Street Journal.
After speaking with construction workers, two of Pirro’s staffers were told they could not access the site without preclearance and were given contact information to reach the Fed’s legal team, according to the report.
In a letter to Pirro’s office, Robert Hur, an outside lawyer for the Fed, nodded to the court rulings that rejected the legality of two subpoenas targeting Powell.
“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80% over the original construction budget deserves some serious review. And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?” Pirro told The Post in a statement.
Kevin Warsh – Trump’s pick to succeed Powell – has jumped a hurdle toward becoming the next Fed chair, submitting his financial disclosures this week and receiving a nomination hearing date of April 21, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.
The paperwork revealed Warsh – who is married to Jane Lauder, an Estee Lauder heiress worth $1.9 billion – could become the wealthiest chairman in history with holdings in the range of $131 million to $209 million.
But he is still facing some roadblocks as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) – a voting member of the Senate Banking Committee – has vowed to block any of Trump’s nominees to lead the Fed until the government’s probe into Powell is ended.
Warsh served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. Though he has told Trump he favors lower interest rates, the former board member pushed for higher rates during his term and is widely viewed as an inflation hawk.
His financial disclosures included $10 million in income from his work at billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office and $3 million from his role at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.
Warsh pledged to resign from these jobs and exit his board seats at UPS and Coupang, a South Korean retailer, if confirmed.
He also vowed to divest roughly 1,800 individual assets mentioned in the filings.
