Fed chief Jerome Powell: What Trump has said about him since April 2025 

When Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said on January 11 that he is being criminally investigated by the federal government, President Donald Trump told NBC News, “I don’t know anything about it.”

Trump could have been in the dark about the specifics of the Department of Justice investigation – approved in November by United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, The New York Times reported – but he has been clear about his desire to oust Powell.

The investigation focuses on Powell’s oversight of the bank’s headquarters renovation. He has been accused of misleading the US Congress about the renovation project. The Federal Reserve has been undergoing building renovations since 2021 on a project first approved in Trump’s first term. The $2.5bn cost is about $600m over the original budget, because of design changes, higher costs and more asbestos than anticipated.

The investigation is the most dramatic escalation of long-simmering tensions between Trump and Powell, who the president initially tapped for the top Fed job but who has since drawn Trump’s ire with his go-slow approach on lowering interest rates. The Fed has been gradually lowering the interest rates, with three rate cuts at the end of last year. Making the rate too low might push inflation up.

Trump’s attacks on the central bank threaten its independence and ability to pursue monetary policies away from political pressures. They will also reduce confidence in the US economy, experts say.

All eyes will be on the next meeting of the Fed interest rates review meeting scheduled for January 27-28.

Trump said at a December 29 news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his team was weighing a “a gross incompetence lawsuit” against Powell.

Trump might have been referring to a claim of “gross negligence”, which can be pursued in either civil or criminal law, depending on its severity.

That’s different from the criminal investigation launched by the Justice Department, which alleges that Powell lied to Congress about the cost and scope of the renovations. The Justice Department has yet to comment on the investigation.

Powell’s term as chair ends in May, but he can remain as a Fed governor through January 2028.

“No one – certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve – is above the law,” Powell said in a video statement. “But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure.”

The White House did not respond to our request for comment.

The investigation into Powell aligns with other Trump administration efforts to prosecute the president’s adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both prosecutions have experienced setbacks, with grand juries declining to indict or judicial rulings being given in the defendants’ favour.

In a September Truth Social post, Trump directly addressed Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging her to step up the Justice Department’s prosecutorial efforts, including against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!” he wrote.

Trump also moved to fire another Fed governor, Lisa Cook, citing a “criminal referral” from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, relating to mortgage fraud. Cook has challenged her firing, and her court case is proceeding.

Trump’s December 29 remarks are the clearest he made about using the legal system to oust Powell.

In his second term, Trump has often called for Powell to resign and frequently attacked him:

• On April 17, 2025: “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and, oh, if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast.”
• On June 18, 2025: “We have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed.”
• On July 13, 2025: “Jerome Powell’s been very bad for our country.”
• On July 15, 2025: “You talk to the guy, it’s like talking to a nothing. It’s like talking to a chair. No personality, no high intelligence, no nothing.”
• On July 22, 2025: “I was very nice to him at the beginning because I know how to sell and, you know, at a certain point it didn’t matter any more because the guy is just not a smart person.”
• On August 1, 2025: Powell is “a stubborn MORON”.
• On August 13, 2025 and September 20, 2025: Powell is “incompetent”.
• On November 18, 2025 and December 9, 2025: Powell is “a stupid man” and “not a smart guy”. 

If the Justice Department can convict Powell, it could satisfy the narrow grounds for removing the Fed chair, which can be done “for cause by the President”. This refers to “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office”, according to a Supreme Court decision about the Federal Trade Commission.

In a May decision that allowed the president to fire members of independent commissions, the Supreme Court noted that the ruling did not affect the Fed, which it called “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity”.

If the Supreme Court rules against Cook, and Powell is found guilty, two spots will become vacant that the Trump administration can fill with its choice of candidates.

But Trump’s move has drawn backlash, including from his Republican Party. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has called for an investigation of the Justice Department.

Tillis, who sits on the Banking Committee that oversees the Fed, has said he will not support any of Trump’s future Fed nominees. The ruling party has a slender 13-11 majority in the Committee.

Peter Conti-Brown, a University of Pennsylvania professor of financial regulation, told PolitiFact in July that Powell could argue that leveraging the renovation budget is a “pretext” for his firing – a legal term used to describe a false reason an employer gives for firing an employee to cover the real reason.

“Courts evaluating any attempted removal after the fact will assess both the animus and pretext very heavily against President Trump,” Conti-Brown said.

Powell, in his video response, called the investigatory inquiries “pretexts” that mask the real reason for the administration’s desire to oust him, which is the dispute over setting interest rates.