Over the last several months, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has become intimately familiar with Donald Trump’s penchant for hiring people and then shitting on them in public. (See: former “first buddy” Elon Musk, whom Trump called an “amazing guy” last November and described as “the man who has lost his mind” in June.) Appointed by Trump during his first term in office, Powell has since been treated to near-biweekly abuse by the leader of the free world, which is probably not what he was expecting when he took the gig. Yet unlike the many other people the former real estate developer has hired and then turned on, Powell has not yet been fired. Emphasis on yet, because it sure sounds like Trump is this close to canning the Fed chief, possibly via social media.
So why hasn’t it happened? What exactly is Trump mad at Powell about? Has Trump actually called the head of the central bank a “stubborn MORON” and a “knucklehead”? And who is Lisa Cook, the Fed board of governors member whom the president said he was firing this week? All your burning questions, answered here.
Why is Trump angry at Powell?
The president thinks Powell, whose term is up next May, should lower interest rates. Powell has not done that this year, citing the fact that inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target and the job market is healthy. Earlier this month, though, the Fed chair suggested a rate cut could be coming—possibly as early as September—due to a slowdown in the labor market. (When the weaker-than-expected numbers came out, Trump responded by ordering the firing of the head of the agency that compiled the data, a move that one economist called “basically unprecedented.”)
What has Trump said about Powell?
Uh, the kind of stuff that, in a normal workplace scenario, would get him hauled into HR’s office and/or slapped with a lawsuit alleging a hostile work environment. In May, Trump called Powell “a FOOL, who doesn’t have a clue.” The following month, the president, referring to the central banker, told reporters: “He’s an average, mentally, person…Low IQ for what he does. I think he’s a very stupid person, actually.” Days later, Trump declared: “We have a guy that’s just a stubborn mule and a stupid person that is making a big mistake…. We have a guy who’s suffering from Trump derangement syndrome, if you want to know the truth. He’s not good for our country.” On July 14, Trump said at the White House: “We have a bad Fed chairman, really bad. If he would lower the rates, if he would lower the rates. And I tried being nice to the guy. It doesn’t help. He’s like a knucklehead. Oh, he’s a knucklehead, a stupid guy. He really is.”
On July 16, confirming a report that he’d asked House lawmakers whether he should fire Powell, Trump told the press: “I talked about the concept of firing him.” He also apparently forgot he was the person who originally put Powell in the Fed job:
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On July 18, on Truth Social: “Sleepy Joe saw how bad he was and reappointed him anyway – And the Fed Board has done nothing to stop this ‘numbskull’ from hurting so many people. In many ways the Board is equally to blame!”
On August 1: “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW. IF HE CONTINUES TO REFUSE, THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!”
Was everything peachy between Trump and Powell during the former’s first term?
In fact, it wasn’t. After nominating Powell for the job, Trump began to turn on him for raising interest rates. In November 2018, for example, he told The Washington Post: “So far, I’m not even a little bit happy with my selection of Jay. Not even a little bit. And I’m not blaming anybody, but I’m just telling you I think that the Fed is way off base with what they’re doing.” That December, he offered a golf metaphor, writing: “The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!” In September 2019, he tweeted: “Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve Fail Again. No ‘guts,’ no sense, no vision! A terrible communicator!”
Does Trump have the power to fire Powell?
Great question. Given that he didn’t fire Powell the first time around, you might be thinking that the president doesn’t have the power to fire the Fed chief—and you would be right! Mostly. Per Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act, the president of the United States can only remove a member of the Fed’s board of governors, which includes the chair, “for cause.” As CNN notes, members of the board “cannot be removed for policy differences, such as Trump’s disagreement with the Fed’s wait-and-see approach on interest rates,” and “Trump has to prove there is sufficient cause to successfully remove Powell.” In the Fed’s 111 years of existence, no chair has ever been removed by a president. Then again, Trump has said and done a lot of things with no historical precedent.
Who is Lisa Cook?
Late Monday, Trump took to Truth Social to announce his firing of Dr. Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. In a letter, of which he posted images without additional comment, he accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud, saying her removal was “effective immediately” and adding: “The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve. In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.” In a statement released Monday, Cook responded to the firing by saying: “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.” Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, added that Trump’s “reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis, or legal authority. We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”
How are people receiving the Cook firing, which could theoretically be a test run for firing Powell?
Not well! “This is a kill shot at Fed independence,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Aaron Klein told Bloomberg. “Trump is saying the Fed is going to do what he wants it to do, by hook or by crook.”
If Powell is fired, who will be Fed chair?
Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has apparently been on the hunt for a replacement; James Bullard, the former president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, has said he would accept the job if, among other things, the central bank were to remain free from political interference. Which doesn’t seem super likely!
Who else has Trump hired, praised, and then publicly flogged?
Oh God, the list is so long, but a few examples, in addition to Powell and Musk, include: Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, whom he previously called “a fine person” and then declared a “bad lawyer and fraudster”; former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who went from “a person I have great respect for” to “a highly unstable ‘nut job’”; onetime secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who was initially dubbed “one of the truly great business leaders of the world,” then deemed “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell”; and former national security adviser John Bolton, who in June 2019 was doing “a very good job” and in August 2025 was having his home and office raided by Trump’s FBI.
Does Jerome Powell have the worst job in Washington?
It’s hard to quantify this sort of thing. Some people might argue that the thousands of public servants who’ve dedicated years to serving their country, only to have DOGE sicced on them, have the worst jobs. Others might claim that such a distinction goes to whoever has to clean Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bathroom after he’s done one of his raw-sewage swims. But Powell, whose job also involves being berated on camera while wearing a hard hat, seems pretty high up on the list.
