Headline Roundup • April 18th, 2025
What Happens If Trump Fires Fed Chair Jerome Powell?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said “Powell's termination cannot come fast enough”—referring to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell after he said that tariffs complicate his job to maintain stable prices and low unemployment. Commentators across the political spectrum expressed concern that Trump firing Powell would send the markets into turmoil.
From the Right: “The problem for Mr. Trump is that Mr. Powell spoke the truth,” The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (Lean Right bias) wrote. “The President often talks in private of firing the Fed Chairman, who wouldn’t go quietly. This would tee up a protracted legal fight, with market turmoil to match as investors awaited a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of dismissal. That’s the last fight Mr. Trump needs now. If the President wants faster growth and less market turmoil, he can help by ending his tariff campaign.”
From the Left: “Investors are already dumping Treasury debt in anticipation of potential Fed politicization. If Mr. Trump were to gain direct control of monetary policy, global financial markets would enter a state of shock as investors lost confidence in the central bank’s commitment to price stability,” a New York Times (Left) writer added.
From the Center: A Reuters (Center) writer said, “What makes the situation especially dicey is that even though investors are highly aware of this risk, they can't truly price it in. The term premium has risen, but not anywhere close to where it would likely soar to if the Fed's independence were truly called into question. The risk is too monumental, and the range of potential outcomes is too broad.”
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Reuters
REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo
Just like a global trade war, the dismissal of the chair of the Federal Reserve by the U.S. President is an event investors know will be unequivocally bad for markets. But it is also a risk that is too far-reaching to properly quantify, meaning the market might be forewarned, but it won't be forearmed.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his feud with Fed Chair Jerome Powell - who Trump himself nominated in 2017 – writing on social media that "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough" and later telling...
New York Times (Opinion)
New York Times (Opinion)
At a congressional hearing in July 2019, Representative Maxine Waters asked the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, what he would do if the president called and said, “I’m firing you, pack up, it’s time to go.” Mr. Powell said diplomatically, “My answer would be ‘no.’” In private, he was more blunt. “I will never, ever, ever leave this job voluntarily until my term ends under any circumstances,” he said. “None whatsoever. You will not see me getting in the lifeboat.”
We may soon find out the depth of that conviction. “Powell’s...
Wall Street Journal (Opinion)
Wall Street Journal (Opinion)
President Trump’s tariff war isn’t going well, with market ructions and evidence of a slowing economy. So it was probably inevitable that Mr. Trump would demand that the Federal Reserve ride to his rescue by cutting interest rates. The President took to social media Thursday morning to blast Fed Chairman Jerome Powell with his familiar nuance.
“Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!’ Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is...
AllSides Picks
Red Blue Translator
Great Depression (The)