Trump Announces Fed Chair Jerome Powell Will Stay Put

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday in the Oval Office that he has “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell from his position.

Following Trump’s announcement of tariffs against a handful of countries on April 2, Powell expressed uncertainty days later on April 4 about the impact of the reciprocal tariffs. While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday evening, the president was asked about U.S. prices. Trump said costs have been going down.

“Prices are going down, not going up. One of the big things is energy is going down. I see that we had a couple of states where gasoline was at $1.98 a gallon. Nobody thought they’d see that for years, maybe,” Trump said. “That’s a big thing.”

“We opened up our wells. We opened up our drilling,” Trump added. “We have more product now for sale. We’re also going to be selling outside of the country to a large extent. It’s going to bring down our deficits, largely going to bring down our deficits.”

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The president continued to say the cost of eggs are dropping, comparing them to the high prices under the Biden-Harris administration.

“It’s all coming down. The only thing that hasn’t come down but hasn’t gone up much are interest rates. We think the Fed should lower the rate. We think that it’s a perfect time to lower the rate. We’d like to see our chairman be early or on time, as opposed to late. Late’s not good,” Trump said.

Another follow-up question reportedly about Powell was asked, but Trump was quickly heard saying he didn’t “want to talk about that,” before adding he has “no intention” of removing Powell.

“I don’t want to talk about that because I have no intention of firing,” Trump said.

In March, prices paid to producers across the U.S. dropped by 0.4% due to a sharp decline in energy costs. While the Producer Price Index showed the annual rate slowed to 2.7% for March, the price of goods excluding energy and food rose by 0.3% that same month.

Trump’s initial wave of tariffs sent shockwaves through the stock market, triggering sharp swings throughout April. But after he announced a 90-day pause — excluding China — on April 9, markets surged in immediate response.