FT News Briefing Swamp Notes: Trump’s case against Fed chair Powell
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Aug 2, 2025 
Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Claire Jones, The FT's U.S. economics editor, dive into the rising tensions between Trump and Fed Chair Jay Powell regarding interest rates. They discuss the implications of Trump's attempts to influence the Fed and the significance of preserving central bank independence. The conversation also touches on how these political maneuvers could affect economic growth and the upcoming midterms for the Democrats.
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Trump's Unprecedented Fed Pressure
- President Donald Trump has publicly and persistently criticized Fed Chair Jay Powell for the Fed's slower rate cuts.
- This unprecedented hostility includes hints of potentially firing Powell, raising concerns about Fed independence.
Renovation as Political Pretext
- Trump's administration uses the Fed's costly $2.5 billion renovation as a pretext to attack Chair Powell.
- The renovation cost dispute is leveraged more as political pressure than legitimate legal grounds.
Pressure Without Legal Merit
- Adam Posen labels Trump's legal arguments against Powell as a mere pretext to apply political pressure.
- The administration's goal is to unsettle Fed leadership by attacking on multiple fronts, hoping for a policy misstep.