The battle between Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell and the camp of President Donald Trump continues to heat up. Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has formally accused the Fed head of committing perjury on two separate occasions, both stemming from discussions about the Fed’s long-scheduled renovations to its head offices in Washington, DC.
Fed Chair Powell has already submitted for a federal oversight watchdog to review the Fed’s renovation plans, but that isn’t stopping Trump proponents of pushing the envelope after President Trump blew a dog-whistle last week to Congressional members signaling his desire to remove Chair Powell from his position early.
Powell’s tenure as the head of the Fed ends in May 2026, having been nominated by President Trump for the position in 2018.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sounded off on the Powell situation earlier Monday, trying to smooth over the White House’s attempts to breach the political independence and executive autonomy of the Federal Reserve.
The Trump administration has been working overtime to drive stakes through the Federal Reserve on the grounds that the Fed is “too slow” to reduce interest rates in the face of ongoing policy uncertainty from the Trump team, specifically on trade and tariffs. Inflationary pressures and potential labor market weakness has kept further rate cuts at bay, to the dismay of President Trump who is actively seeking lower interest rates to ease the cost of federal deficit funding: The Trump team successfully muscled through a budget that will add trillions to the US’s already-growing debt load over the next decade, and now Trump and his allies within the US government are scrambling to find ways to make their own spending overhang more manageable.
Bessent highlights
At the end of the day, it is Trump’s decision on Powell.
We need to examine the entire Federal Reserve institution.
Will be at the Fed Monday night.
Not going to deal with hypotheticals.
Powell’s term ends in May, another opens up in January.
Decrease in rates would unlock mortgage market.