Donald Trump is taking his battle with Jerome Powell to the doorstep of the Federal Reserve. Literally.
The president will be visiting the central bank at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, returning to the White House a little over an hour later, per his public schedule.
The move is unusual for a number of reasons. Primarily, because this is the first visit by a president to the central bank in nearly two decades—and only the fourth visit from the Oval Office in history.
The context of this visit also raises eyebrows, as President Trump and his cabinet have been continually lobbying and criticizing the Fed since winning the Oval Office in January.
In the past, visits by the president to the Fed have been viewed as endorsements—both of the chairman at the time and of the Fed’s independence as a whole.
For example, the last visit came from George W. Bush on Feb. 6, 2006, when he attended the swearing-in ceremony for his nominee, Ben S. Bernanke, as the 14th chairman of the Fed.
Bush’s attendance was seen as a backing not only of Bernanke but also of the independent nature of the Fed. When announcing his nomination, Bush told reporters in the Oval Office: “In our economy, the Fed is the independent body responsible for setting monetary policy, for overseeing the integrity of our banking system, for containing the risk that can arise in financial markets, and for ensuring a functioning payment system.
“Across the world, the Fed is the symbol of the integrity and the reliability of our financial system, and the decisions of the Fed affect the lives and livelihoods of all Americans.”
Prior to Bush’s visit, the most recent example of a president visiting the Fed had been President Gerald Ford in July of 1975—again for a swearing-in ceremony at which the independence of the central bank was lauded.
Speaking at the swearing-in of Philip C. Jackson as a member of the Board of Governors, President Ford said: “The essence of the Federal Reserve System is independence. Independence of both the Congress and the president, as well as the individual independence of thought of each of its governors. I firmly and completely respect that independence.”
The final example—but the first visit of its kind—came in 1937 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the opening of the board’s new headquarters—the Eccles building, which President Trump will likely be visiting today.
Trump vs. the Fed so far
Even before Trump won the election, there were signs he might cause trouble for Chair Jerome Powell. Despite being the president to nominate Powell for the role, he made veiled threats about the security of the chairman’s role. He told Bloomberg: “I would let him serve [his term] out, especially if I thought he was doing the right thing.”
Back then, the “right thing” in Trump’s mind was not to cut interest rates as it would give the economy, and the Biden administration at the time, a boost.
Since taking the Oval Office in January that request has flipped to the other extreme. Trump has dubbed Powell “dumb” and “hardheaded” for not cutting the base rate, adding he knows more than the Fed boss about interest rates.
While some market followers may agree with Trump’s take that Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee are reacting too slowly to economic data, no analyst or investor wants to see the independence of the central bank threatened.
As such, markets reacted shakily when Trump threatened to fire Powell, and then stabilized when the president rescinded the suggestion. After all, the federally mandated independence of the Fed was written into law to protect it from the whims of politicians and instead mandate it to ensure the long-term health of the economy.
While lambasting the policy of the Fed remains a common theme of the Trump administration (even yesterday, the president wrote on Truth Social that “families are being hurt because interest rates are too high, and even our country is having to pay a higher rate than it should be because of ‘Too Late [Powell].’”), criticism is also being lobbied at wider decision-making.
This has included Powell’s management of the central bank’s offices—which Trump will reportedly be touring today—with Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, making public a letter he sent to the Fed chair, saying the president is “extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System” particularly relating to the “ostentatious overhaul of [the Fed’s] Washington, D.C., headquarters.”
Powell has since responded to, and clarified, some of the points raised in Vought’s letter, noting: “The project is large … because it involves the renovation of two historic buildings on the National Mall that were first constructed in the 1930s. While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed.”
Though the Fed has independence in its business management and expenditures, Powell reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to “transparency for our decisions and to be accountable to the public”—announcing a new section of the Fed’s website had been created to keep voters up-to-date on the latest developments.
Politics8 years ago