WASHINGTON: Donald Trump will not seek to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before the central banker's term ends and would consider JPMorgan JPM.N Chief Executive Jamie Dimon for Treasury secretary if he wins the Nov. 5 election, the former president said. Bloomberg in an interview published Tuesday.
JPMorgan declined to comment on Trump's remarks. Powell's term as chairman expires in 2026. Powell's seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors expires in 2028. Trump's interview took place in late June, according to Bloomberg.
Powell said Monday that he has no plans to leave his post as head of the U.S. central bank before his term expires. Powell was first appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by former President Barack Obama, but it was Trump who chose him to lead the central bank, a post Powell assumed in early 2018.
Trump soon turned on him, criticizing the Fed’s interest rate hikes during Powell’s first year in charge. Trump went so far as to talk about firing the Fed chief, though aides later said Trump concluded he probably didn’t have the power to do so. That didn’t stop Trump from continuing to threaten Powell throughout his presidency — a practice that President Joe Biden, Trump’s successor, has refrained from during his tenure.
Trump said in the Bloomberg interview that the Federal Reserve should hold off on cutting rates ahead of the November election in which the Republican presidential nominee faces Democrat Biden.
Powell has been asked repeatedly over the past week whether the election would influence the Fed's decision on whether to cut rates, and Powell said again Monday that he and other central bank policymakers do not factor politics into their decision-making.
As for Dimon, Trump said he was considering him for the top job at the Treasury Department. Until recently, Trump had been critical of Dimon.
Last year, Trump called Dimon a “very overrated globalist” in his Truth Social platform.
Dimon, like many other corporate executives, had condemned the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who made an unsuccessful attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to Biden.
However, Dimon has recently praised some of Trump's positions and policies.
“Let's take a step back, let's be honest. He was kind of right on NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy pretty well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right on some of the China issues,” Dimon said. CNBC Earlier this year, he “got some of these critical issues right.”
Trump also said in the interview that he would reduce the corporate tax rate to 15%.
In addition to imposing new tariffs of between 60% and 100% on China, he said he would impose a blanket 10% tariff on imports from other countries, citing complaints about foreign countries not buying enough American goods.
