Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaks during an Economic Club of Chicago event in Chicago on April 16, 2025. Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump on Thursday said Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell would be “out of there real fast” if asked to leave the post.

Why it matters: Trump is ratcheting up political pressure on Powell to cut interest rates and hinting at possible intentions to remove the nation’s top economic policymaker, a move that is legally dubious and unprecedented.

What they’re saying: “I don’t think he’s doing the job. He’s too late, always too late,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

• “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it, and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” he added.
• Trump did not say whether he planned to fire or remove Powell.

Flashback: In a news conference in November, Powell — whose term as Fed chair expires in May 2026 — was asked whether he would step down if Trump asked him to resign. Powell gave an unusually blunt answer: “No.”

• He later said that the removal or demotion of top Fed officials was “not permitted under the law.”
• Powell was initially nominated by Trump in 2017, and appointed to another four-year term by President Biden in 2022.