The Terrible Consequences of Messing With the Fed
At least for now, Donald Trump has disavowed his recent statement that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough." More accurately, even though he did in fact talk about Powell's termination and called him a "major loser," Trump now claims that he "never" planned to try to fire Powell, adding: "The press runs away with things." This reversal is not as good as it might seem, however, most obviously because Trump has shown on issue after issue (and whim after whim) that he changes his mind without warning (or apparent thought), so he might at any point change his mind back again regarding Powell and the Fed. Moreover, as Professor Dorf explained in a column earlier this week, Trump will be able to name a new Fed Chair whenever Powell leaves, which will be at the end of the Chair's term in May 2026 at the latest. And Trump will have been able to put a loyalist in place to be promoted to Chair a few ...