Trump keeps attacking Fed’s Powell despite interference controversy: “Either incompetent or corrupt”

[Financial News] Despite mounting controversy that he is interfering with the Federal Reserve System (Fed), U.S. President Donald Trump once again lashed out at Fed Chair Jerome Hayden Powell, brushing off sharp criticism from political and business circles. Trump said Powell was “either incompetent or corrupt” and stressed that he hoped Powell would “soon be gone.”
According to Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) and other local outlets, Trump, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, on the 13th (local time), took aim at Powell, saying, “That jerk will soon be gone.” Later, after moving to a nearby Ford factory and speaking with reporters there, Trump again said he hoped Powell would “soon be gone,” adding, “He either doesn’t know what he’s doing, or it’s something even worse than that.” Trump went on, “There’s something wrong with this guy. We have a bad Fed chair. He’s bad in many ways, but especially because he has kept interest rates far too high.”
Trump again brought up the renovation work at the Fed’s headquarters, criticizing it as “the most expensive construction project in history” just to refurbish “a small building,” and claiming, “I could have done it for 25 million dollars, but they are spending billions.” Earlier the same day at The White House, Trump had also attacked Powell as “either incompetent or corrupt,” saying, “I don’t know what kind of person he is, but he has certainly not done a good job.” At the Ford factory, Trump said he would announce Powell’s successor, whose term ends in May, “within a few weeks.”
From his first administration, Trump had been pressing the Fed to cut interest rates, repeatedly threatening to fire Powell for not lowering rates as quickly as he wanted. In July last year, Trump visited the Fed’s headquarters and blasted the renovation project, saying it was costing taxpayers far too much. On the 11th, Powell revealed on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had served him with a grand jury subpoena on the 9th. The DOJ alleges that Powell committed perjury during a June hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs regarding the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters. A grand jury is a body of ordinary citizens in the U.S. legal system that decides, based on prosecutors’ evidence, whether to indict a suspect; failure to comply with a subpoena can result in imprisonment or fines for contempt of court.
Powell has argued that the subpoena is a continuation of “threats and ongoing pressure” from the Trump administration. He also claims that the DOJ investigation began because he refused to accede to Trump’s demands for interest rate cuts.
Political circles and financial markets in the U.S., as well as officials at foreign central banks, have voiced strong criticism and concern, saying the U.S. government is blatantly interfering with the Fed, the country’s central bank. In response, Trump said in an interview with National Broadcasting Company (NBC) on the 11th that he knew “absolutely nothing” about the investigation into Powell.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 13th, citing sources, that Trump met with federal prosecutors at The White House on the 8th, one day before Powell received the subpoena. According to these sources, Trump berated the prosecutors as weak and complained that they were not moving quickly enough in bringing indictments against his targets.

pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter