The measure of support from GOP members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs showed how traditional Republicans are carefully navigating a presidency in which Trump often flirts with ideas — like steep tariffs or firing the Fed chair — that threaten to undermine confidence in the U.S. economy.
“The markets expect an independent, central bank,” said GOP South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who cautioned against firing Powell. “And if they thought for a minute that he wasn’t independent, it would cast a spell over the forecasts and the integrity of the decisions being made by the bank.”
Still, plenty of other Republicans think that dismissing Powell is a fine idea.
“The most incompetent, worst Federal Reserve chairman in American history should resign,” said GOP Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters that he was “unhappy with the leadership” at the Fed, but added “I’m honestly not sure whether that executive authority exists” to fire Powell.
House Financial Services Committee chair French Hill has underscored that presidents don’t have the authority to fire the Fed chair, yet has also been sympathetic to Trump’s complaints about Powell’s leadership. He and other Republicans have also noted that Powell’s term as chair is ending next year anyway, and Trump will have an opportunity to name a new chair then.
Regardless, it would be legally dubious to fire Powell over the renovation.
“That would be litigated and I don’t see a reason, for cause or otherwise, to remove him,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican member of the Senate committee that oversees the Fed, told reporters this week.
He added that he understood the president’s “frustration” with the Fed’s reluctance to lower interest rates as it tries to tamp down inflation, saying, “I get that, but I think it’s very important the Federal Reserve remains independent.”
Even those Republicans who argued that the president has grounds to fire Powell and piled criticism on the central banker conceded that it would still be a painful step.
“That’s a decision the president will make, and he’s being very deliberate about it,” said Moreno, the Ohio senator who called for Powell’s resignation. “But I don’t think we should put the country through any of that.”
