President Donald Trump has a pattern when he gets worked up in front of cameras. He locks in and keeps going. What starts as a complaint can quickly spiral into something else, especially when it’s been building for months.
That pattern showed up again Wednesday during an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, when Trump turned to one of his longest-running frustrations, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term expires in a month.
“He’s doing a bad job,” Trump said, referring to Powell. “He should be lowering interest rates.”
Powell’s term as Fed chairman is set to expire in mid-May, but he’s promised to stay on the job until a successor is confirmed.
“That is what the law calls for,” Powell told reporters last month. “And that’s what we’re going to do in this situation.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to remove the Fed chairman, although it’s not clear he has the authority to do so. Trump nominated former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh as Powell’s replacement earlier this month.
At one point during the interview, Bartiromo pressed Trump on whether his pick, Warsh, could face resistance from North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a line of questioning that appeared to set him off.
Trump responded by incorrectly claiming Tillis was no longer a senator, leaning into the assertion even as the moment began to slip.
In reality, Tillis remains in office and will serve through the end of his term, though he announced last June he would not seek reelection this fall.
But even as Bartiromo initially moved past Trump’s gaffe, he circled back and forced the moment back into the spotlight.
“Thom Tillis is no longer a senator, right? He quit,” Trump insisted.
“Well, he’s on his way out,” Bartiromo pushed back.
“No, he quit. He quit,” Trump repeated, doubling down.
He then offered his own theory for Tillis’ departure, “I think he doesn’t want the legacy of stopping a person who could be great. He doesn’t want the legacy of having an incompetent guy stay there for longer than is necessary.”
Some viewers were surprised by the push back while others were shocked at Trump’s insistence against a known fact.
“Damn this was lowkey hostile af from Fox News,’ one user wrote.
“She provokes him. He shoots his mouth off. He has no power to fire him. Media runs with it. Fox News Agenda to be divisive. Evergreen,” another added. While a third mused, “He’s so dumb and so LOST. Wow”
“Super reassuring the man who started a war and holds the nuclear codes doesn’t know who’s in the Senate,” @Me36181491 commented on X.
“If there’s one thing dementia is gonna do, it’s get worse,” commented @citizengatsby.
Tillis has said he will not vote to confirm Trump’s nominee for Powell’s position until the Justice Department’s probe of cost overruns at the Fed’s headquarters renovation project is resolved, NPR reports
The president has not indicated if U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro would back down from investigating the project.
“You want Jay Powell out of the way?” Bartiromo asked the president.
“If he’s not leaving on time—I’ve held back firing him, I’ve wanted to fire him, but I hate to be controversial, you know. I want to be uncontroversial, but he will be fired,” Trump responded.
“Man, who posted that a whole civilization would die, said in that clip he hates to be ‘controversial,’” @NewsiesNeighbor commented on the video on X.
Trump’s language underscored the stakes and the potential complications the administration faces if Powell doesn’t step down from the seven-member Fed board.
Reuters reports that Trump appointed three of the current members, including Fed Governor Stephen Miran. Former President Joe Biden appointed three other members of the board.
Powell was promoted to the top central bank job by Trump, but has proved himself independent of the president’s pressure and threats, and even Trump appointees like Fed Governor Christopher Waller are considered unlikely to support radical change or even abide by Trump’s advice on interest rates, Reuters reports.
Trump told Bartiromo he would not instruct prosecutors to drop their probe of the Federal Reserve.
