Several Republican presidential candidates have an overwhelmingly negative view of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and have pledged to either remove him or appoint a new leader if elected president in 2024.
The Fed has raised its benchmark federal funds rate 11 times since March 2022, bringing the rate to a range of 5.25% and 5.50% in an attempt to cool inflation and the economy. Powell’s term ends in 2026, and Former Arkansas Gov.
Asa Hutchinson and conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have both said that they’d oust the chair, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence said that they would not reappoint him if elected, according to their respective campaigns and public comments on the subject.
“Well, of course he has a term but I would like to see a new leader into the Fed,” Hutchinson told Bloomberg on Sept. 12, which his campaign pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation toward. “I would fire him. And the reason is that he has raised interest rates at the wrong time. I think it’s been more aggressive than it needed to be.”
Inflation peaked for the Biden administration in June 2022, reaching 9.1%, and eventually came down to a low of 3.0% in June. Inflation has since begun to rise again, increasing 3.2% year-over-year in July and 3.7% in August.
“[Ramaswamy has] spoken pretty extensively about reforming the Fed by cutting >90% of the Fed’s headcount & returning its focus to a narrow mandate: stabilize the U.S. dollar as a unit of measurement,” Tricia McLaughlin, campaign spokesperson, told the DCNF. “It’s a critical step to unleashing GDP growth & avoiding financial crises.”
The chair of the Fed has never been removed before the end of their term, with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 requiring “cause” to remove someone from the position, according to Fox Business.
“I don’t think he’s done a good job,” DeSantis told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan on Aug. 14. “I mean, I think from COVID on they put too much money into the economy. That drove the inflation. But then they said it was going to be transitory, that we had to ‘unlearn Milton Friedman.’ No. When you start doing something like that, in about 18 to 20 months you are going to see inflation. So they were behind the ball on that, and then they’ve hiked so much now it’s caused a lot of problems in the economy and could end up driving us into a recession.”
Though Trump nominated Powell in 2017, he wouldn’t reappoint Powell to the position if he returns to the White House in 2024.
“I would not reappoint him. I thought he was always late, whether it was good or bad, but he was always late,” Trump told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow on Aug. 17. “I was surprised he was reappointed — probably got reappointed because they knew I didn’t like him much.”
President Joe Biden reappointed Powell for another term in 2021, according to a White House press release.
Pence floated a former Trump nominee as a possible contender that he’d appoint to the Fed if elected president in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
“Jerome Powell’s time is over,” Pence told radio host Erik Erikson on Aug. 18 per Bloomberg, which his campaign pointed the DCNF toward. “I’d love to see somebody like Judy Shelton appointed to the Federal Reserve.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and conservative radio personality Larry Elder have not made it clear what they would do as president with regard to Powell’s position.
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