Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday met with President Donald Trump at the White House for the first time in the president’s second term.
“At the President’s invitation, Chair Powell met with the President today at the White House to discuss economic developments including for growth, employment and inflation,” the Fed said in a statement.
“Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook,” the central bank’s statement continued.
“Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.”
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The meeting between Powell and Trump comes after the president has repeatedly called on the central bank to lower interest rates, while claiming the White House should have more authority over how the Fed sets monetary policy.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered an overview of the meeting at a press briefing, where she said that Trump “did say that he believes the Fed chair is making a mistake by not lowering interest rates, which is putting us at an economic disadvantage to China and other countries.”
Leavitt was asked if the president discussed potentially trying to remove Powell from his position, and the press secretary said that wasn’t discussed in the meeting.
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In April, Trump wrote in a social media post that Powell is “always TOO LATE AND WRONG,” and called for the Fed to move forward with “preemptive cuts” to interest rates, comments which contributed to a stock market sell-off amid broader uncertainty over trade policy.
He added that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough,” and has previously made comments about potentially attempting to fire the Fed chair. The president backtracked on the threat of firing Powell, telling reporters he had “no intention of firing him.”
After the Fed decided to hold rates steady for a third straight meeting in May, Trump wrote in a social media post that Powell is a “FOOL, who doesn’t have a clue. Other than that, I like him very much!”
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Powell, who was appointed Fed chair by Trump in 2017, has said that he wouldn’t resign before the end of his term if asked to do so.
He has also been asked if the president has the authority to remove him from the role, and told the press it wouldn’t be permitted under the law.
A recent report by Goldman Sachs examined the risks of undermining the independence of central banks and concluded that it could contribute to higher inflation, reduced stock prices and a weaker currency.
It also found that institutional changes to increase the independence of central banks like the Fed could lower inflation in the following years.
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