Trump Denies Plans to Fire Powell. He Also Won’t Rule It Out.

The firing would be without precedent and raise legal questions about the agency’s long-protected political independence.

Donald Trump
Alex Brandon/AP

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wasn’t planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — but he wouldn’t rule it out either.

Firing the Fed chair would be unprecedented and legally untested. The Fed is a politically independent institution, designed to insulate decisions that dictate financial markets, including monetary policy, from the whims of politics.

“I don’t rule out anything, but I think it’s highly unlikely,” President Donald Trump told reporters during a meeting in the Oval Office.