MNI BRIEF: OMB Director-Trump Not Likely To Fire Fed’s Powell

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, said Thursday President Donald Trump is unlikely to try to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. 

 

“He’s not likely to fire” the Fed chair, Vought said at a Christian Science Monitor event with journalists, stressing that the President’s main concern is that interest rates are not lower. Vought criticized the Fed for its cost overruns in a years long renovation of its Marriner Eccles building in Washington, and said  the central bank’s “Martin building is like a palace.” 

 

The OMB director said he is “hoping for a site visit in the next week or two at the Fed” and he sidestepped reporters’ questions concerning Federal Reserve independence. “This is not a metaphysical debate about Fed independence.” (See MNI INTERVIEW: Powell Firing Would Set Off Legal Battle-Menand)