President Trump told reporters that he is actively considering replacements for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and that he is down to three or four candidates.
“I know within 3 or 4 people who I’m going to pick,” he said Wednesday.
The consideration of Powell successors comes after a period of intensifying pressure from Trump to consider rate cuts as the chairman’s guarded wait-and-see monetary policy stance continues to inflame tensions with the White House.
Trump’s comments on Wednesday didn’t address the question of whether he is looking to fire Powell or announce his final pick quickly in part to undercut Powell’s authority for the remainder of his term.
But it comes after the president offered last week: “Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have to change my mind about firing him?”
Powell has said he intends to serve out his term as chair, which ends in May 2026.
“He goes out pretty soon fortunately because I think he’s terrible,” Trump added Wednesday.
The comments from the president during a press conference in the Netherlands came at the same time as Powell sat before Senate lawmakers about 3,800 miles away in Washington for his second day of regularly scheduled testimony before Congress.
Powell told Senate lawmakers that the central bank is “well-positioned to wait” on any interest rate adjustments until it has more clarity on how Trump’s tariffs will affect inflation and the direction of the US economy. He delivered the same message to House lawmakers Tuesday.
The president’s attacks on Powell intensified at the end of last week as Trump called for rates to drop from 4.25% to 4.5% to between 1% and 2% and said of Powell and the Fed’s board of governors: “I don’t know why the Board doesn’t override this Total and Complete Moron!”
Trump repeated some of those points in a Tuesday social media postcalling for rates “at least two to three points lower” and saying that Powell “will be in Congress today in order to explain, among other things, why he is refusing to lower the Rate.”
“I hope Congress really works this very dumb, hardheaded person, over. We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come.”
On Wednesday Trump reiterated his oft-stated case of why Powell should lower rates by at least one percentage point immediately, citing “no inflation.”
He also recounted an earlier face-to-face meeting with Powell, offering a mocking voice for Powell, and repeated his personal attacks by saying “I think he’s a very stupid person actually” and “an average mentally person.”
