America
Trump and the Fed: Long-Running Feud
Left-leaning central bank has made monumental mistakes by letting politics infect policy.
T BY DENNIS KNEALE
hese days doling out bit- ter criticism is a booming business, and it spares few targets. One sacrosanct
exception: the Federal Reserve. Since its inception in 1913 (blame Woodrow Wilson), the Fed has been propped up on a pedestal to protect it from presidential pressures. Its chairman, appointed to a four-
year term by the president, cannot be removed except for “cause.” This much-revered independence
has bubble-wrapped the Fed from blowback. As if criticism itself could
threaten its very foundation. This is rather precious by the bare-
knuckled protocol of today. It lets the Fed divert criticism and discourage any inspection or questioning of its moves, motives, and methods. This masks the real truth: The Fed
has made some monumental errors in recent years; and it is a very-left- leaning entity that has let politics infect policy. “For every one Republican econo-
mist who works at the Federal Reserve, there are 10 Democrat economists,” James Fishback, CEO of the invest- ment firm Azoria, noted recently.
Jay Powell: Above Reproach? J
erome Powell, a native of Washington, D.C., had
been at the Federal Reserve since President Barack Obama appointed him to the Board of Governors in 2012, after a career as an investment banker. Under his predecessor, Janet
10 NEWSMAX | JUNE 2025
“For every $1 donated from Fed employees in the 2020 election, 97 cents went to Democratic candidates or causes.” The rate cut in September 2024,
just before the presidential election, “had no justification in fundamentals” and “was designed to throw Kamala Harris a lifeline,” Fishback said. Now the Fed is at risk of erring
again, and President Donald Trump has the temerity to point this out. Thus, he has created another (con-
trived) constitutional crisis, in the eyes of his critics, by singling out the Fed chairman he himself appointed — Jerome Powell. “Mr. Too Late, a major loser,”
Trump called him. There he goes again. Cue obligatory
the end of his term. President Donald Trump
Yellen, who later would become the most “woke” Treasury secretary in history, the Fed kept interest rates at zero for eight years in the Obama era, raising them only twice near
appointed Powell as chair and hoped he would be more amenable to rate cuts — and the Fed then raised rates nine times in just four years of Trump 1.0. It sought, brazenly,
to directly undercut the YELLEN
higher growth stoked by Trump’s cuts in taxes and regulation. The central bank did so despite zero signs of any future inflation at the time. Then came the COVID-19
crisis, and rates plummeted back down to zero, as the Biden administration and Congress launched $2 trillion
STOCK MARKET/MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES POWELL/TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES
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