{"id":4961,"date":"2026-01-14T12:29:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/trumps-repeated-threats-to-sue-and-replace-fed-chair-jerome-powell\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:29:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:29:41","slug":"trumps-repeated-threats-to-sue-and-replace-fed-chair-jerome-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/trumps-repeated-threats-to-sue-and-replace-fed-chair-jerome-powell\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s repeated threats to sue and replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Justice Department’s decision to investigate the Federal Reserve comes after a long string of threats by President Donald Trump to go after the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell.<\/p>\n

Trump told NBC News on Sunday night that he had no advance knowledge<\/a> of the Justice Department’s subpoenas<\/a>, which center on Powell’s Senate testimony in June about the renovation of the Federal Reserve’s office buildings. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But Trump’s displeasure \u2014 and his desire to see legal action against Powell and the agency \u2014 was out in the open. For months, he has been making remarks and posting on social media that he wants Powell gone. In the past, the Justice Department has brought charges<\/a> against current and former officials<\/a> <\/a>Trump has publicly exhorted the attorney general to prosecute. <\/p>\n

While he has criticized the Federal Reserve’s renovation project \u2014 at the same time he is pursuing a controversial renovation of the White House \u2014 the core of Trump’s frustrations with Powell have stemmed from the chair’s refusal to further lower interest rates to fit with the administration\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Powell released a video<\/a> in which he went after Trump directly. The move was highly unusual for a Fed chair, who generally tries to stay out of the political fray, and the first time Powell has directly called out the president. He said the subpoenas were “unprecedented” and “should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure.”<\/p>\n

In his brief phone call with NBC News<\/a> on Sunday, Trump said the Justice Department subpoenas have nothing to do with interest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I wouldn\u2019t even think of doing it that way. What should pressure him is the fact that rates are far too high. That\u2019s the only pressure he\u2019s got,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, the tension between the two men has been evident for some time. During a tour of the Federal Reserve in July, Trump criticized Powell for the cost of the renovation project. Powell took issue with the president’s assessments, saying he was misreading the documents in question.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Justice Department has said the attorney general has “instructed her U.S. attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of taxpayer dollars.”<\/p>\n

The Federal Reserve is not funded through taxpayer dollars. The central bank and its regional banks are funded by fees on services like check processing, as well as loans it makes to corporate banks and the income it gets from its investment portfolio of U.S. government bonds, foreign currencies and other securities.<\/p>\n

Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia \u2014 the office handling the case \u2014 said, \u201cWe do not comment on ongoing investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below are some key times when the president has publicly pressured Powell. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Justice Department’s decision to investigate the Federal Reserve comes after a long string of threats by President Donald Trump to go after the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell. Trump told NBC News on Sunday night that he had no advance knowledge of the Justice Department’s subpoenas, which center on Powell’s Senate testimony in June <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}