Reporter To Trump: 'Are You Completely Ruling Out The Idea Of Firing Jerome Powell?'

In the Oval Office, President Trump was asked if he is considering firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Transcript

00:00So you were saying the other day that Scott Bessinger, so happy with him at Treasury,

00:05that he's not your top option to replace Jerome Powell whenever that may be,

00:08whenever you decide what you want to do with him.

00:11No, Scott's doing a very good job. I'm very happy with Scott.

00:14Is Kevin Hassett doing a tough year list?

00:16Kevin, somebody would consider you. Kevin is fantastic, too.

00:20We have a lot of good people for that job.

00:23It's not a tough job, to be honest. Assuming you're smart, it's not a tough job.

00:28If you're a dummy, then I guess it's a tough job.

00:31But it might be one of the easiest jobs I've ever seen.

00:35And now, on top of it, he's building a close to $3 billion little nest egg for himself.

00:40He's not doing the right job.

00:43We should be saving a trillion dollars a year on interest.

00:46You know, when he talks about cost? We should be saving.

00:49Think of it, a trillion dollars a year. Add that with the tariffs and everything else.

00:53But he just doesn't want it. He's a knucklehead.

00:57But we'll see how that, we'll see how he's listening to this.

01:01That's a strange conversation. But, you know, we like to say it like it is.

01:06But we have a lot of people that want that job very badly.

01:10And I'm only interested in low interest people, frankly, because you don't need.

01:16I know. So they had, you know, the 71 different economists and experts that they picked about a month ago.

01:25I was the only one, along with one person from maybe the Wharton School of Finance.

01:31The two of us got it right. 69 people, including Powell, got it wrong.

01:36And he wants to hire thousands of new people to help him decide where we're going in the future.

01:43It only takes one good mind. It doesn't take 5,000 good minds.

01:48So they're expanding the Fed. It's the dumbest thing I've heard of.

01:51But, you know, it's very autonomous.

01:54Just to follow up on that, sir, is there, are you completely ruling out the idea of firing Jerome Powell?

02:03I don't rule out anything. But I think it's highly unlikely, unless he has to leave fraud.

02:09I mean, it's possible there's fraud involved with the 2.5, 2.7 billion dollar renovation.

02:16This is a renovation. How do you spend 2.7 billion dollars?

02:21And he didn't have proper clearance, et cetera, et cetera. So you know that's going on.

02:25So, you know, there could be something to that. But I think he's not doing a good job.

02:29He's got a very easy job to do. You know what he has to do? Lower interest rates.

02:34Who's just going to get the letter? Who's just going to get the letter? Who's just going to get the letter?