Before the Epstein files became all the news and Blondi vs. Bongino broke out, the president was keeping up his constant drumbeat about “Too Late” Powell. “‘Too Late’ should resign immediately!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social, using his nickname for Powell, reported The Hill. “‘Too Late’ is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs. No Inflation, COMPANIES POURING INTO AMERICA. ‘The hottest Country in the World!’ LOWER THE RATE!!!”
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte is making a stink about the central bank's $2.5 billion renovation project. But what really has Trump’s boxers twisted is that he believes the Fed open market committee, led by Powell, should drop the Fed Funds rate by 3 points (3% or 300bp). “I think he’s doing a terrible job,” Trump said before departing the White House for a trip to flood-ravaged Texas. “I think we should be 3 points lower, interest rates. He’s costing our country a lot of money.” Of course the Fed folks don’t lower rates by just shouting the news from their marble encased walls at the Eccles Building. It is done by creating money. What the President is harping about is that he wants more money created.
Maggie Haberman, who follows Trump’s every move, told CNN, “I’m skeptical he will fire Powell — he might; obviously, anything is possible. But in the meantime, he is going to make his life as miserable as possible, or at least as miserable as the president perceives it could be, behaving this way.”
Remember that when Trump took office in 2017, the very dovish Janet Yellen was Fed Chair. But he thought she was too short. So, he picked Jerome Powell who he now calls a “major loser,” a “stubborn mule” and a “numbskull.”
“The president also appeared hung up on Yellen’s height. He told aides on the National Economic Council on several occasions that the 5-foot-tall economist was not tall enough to lead the central bank, quizzing them on whether they agreed, current and former officials said,” The Washington Post reported.
So Trump doesn’t like “too short” or “too late.” The betting markets say it’s Kevin vs. Kevin. Hessett versus Warsh.
“I already don’t trust the next Fed chair, and I don’t even know who it is,” Dario Perkins, an economist at TS Lombard, a research firm, told the New York Times. “There is this perception that Trump has just put in people to be ‘yes-men’ in all different parts of government, so why should the Fed be any different?”
Speaking of yes-men or women, the guys on CNBC were grousing that the next Fed Chair may come from the Fox (Business) News stable throwing out names like Maria Bartiromo or Charles Payne. Sounds crazy, right? But Jerome Powell isn’t an economist. And, according to Newsweek, 23 Fox employees work or have worked in the Trump Administration. Maria can create money and lower interest rates. And according to Wikipedia she is 5 foot 5 inches tall.
