‘Never did!’ Trump backtracks and insists he has ‘no intention’ to oust Fed chair
President Donald Trump backed off a threat he has escalated for weeks on Tuesday, telling reporters he doesn't have any plans to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When reporters in the Oval Office asked Trump whether he plans to do so, he replied, “None whatsoever."
"Never did. The press runs away with things. No, I have no intention of firing him," Trump insisted.
The reply was a marked break from the recent past in which Trump proclaimed that Powell's "termination cannot come soon enough" and that he was a "major loser" who is "Mr. Too Late" when it comes to reducing interest rates — even accusing Powell, with no evidence or examples, of manipulating interest rates in 2024 to hurt his presidential campaign.
Trump was the president who initially appointed Powell to lead the Federal Reserve in the first place. However, he has grown enraged at Powell after the central bank head said Trump's tariffs risked price increases and could prevent the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates as soon as Trump would wish.
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Rate cuts generally result in increased borrowing and spending and energize the economy, but can also worsen inflation during periods when prices are rising quickly. In those situations, the Fed generally raises rates, and reduces borrowing and spending, to try to force price stability, which tends to come at a cost of higher unemployment and slower growth.
Complicating any potential move to fire Powell would be the fact that no president has ever removed a Fed chair before the end of their term, and current law doesn't actually provide a legal mechanism to do so, as part of ensuring the central bank maintains its independence from politicians who might seek to manipulate rates for election season.
The Wall Street Journal's own editorial board has condemned Trump's previous threats against Powell, warning that if Trump even tried to remove him, it could send the stock market into chaos.
‘Should horrify you’: Lawyer slams Trump DHS’s response to ‘disappeared’ migrant
The Trump administration responded Tuesday to a New York Times report that raised troubling questions about the whereabouts of a Venezuelan migrant in U.S. custody.
But even the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to clear up the confusion surrounding Ricardo Prada Vasquez, who friends say “simply disappeared,” sent alarm bells ringing for American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
“It should HORRIFY you that it took a major news story for @DHSGov to say publicly that it imprisoned someone in El Salvador five weeks ago,” Reichlin-Melnick told his social media followers. “The man never once got a trial. No judge ever found him to be a public safety threat or a member of a gang. No due process. No nothing.”
The prominent immigration attorney was reacting to a DHS statement that unsurprisingly pegged Vasquez as a “confirmed member of Tren de Aragua,” who the agency said on Tuesday was removed from the country last month.
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“On Jan. 15, Prada was encountered at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel in Detroit, Michigan attempting to enter the U.S. from Canada and was referred to secondary inspection,” the DHS statement said. “Further investigation resulted in Prada being designated a public safety threat as a confirmed member of TdA and in violation of his conditions of admission. Prada was apprehended and transferred to ICE Michigan for detention. On Feb. 27, an immigration judge ordered Prada removed from the U.S. On March 15, Prada was removed to El Salvador.”
That timeline appears to fit the Times’ reporting that stated Prada had not been heard from or seen since March 15, when the Trump administration flew out planes carrying Venezuelan migrants from Texas to El Salvador.
But, Prada’s name did not appear “on the list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day,” nor did he appear “in the photos and videos released by the authorities of shackled men with shaved heads,” the Times reported.
