(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell soon, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing an unidentified White House official.
Separately, CBS News reported that Trump had asked Republican lawmakers if he should fire Powell, and several people in the room said he indicated he will do it.
The meeting with members of the House of Representatives took place in the White House’s Oval Office on Tuesday night, CBS reported, citing multiple sources.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Federal Reserve monetary policy in recent months, angry over the central bank’s refusal to cut interest rates. Fed officials have resisted cutting rates until there is clarity on whether Trump’s tariffs on U.S. trading partners reignite inflation.
Trump has called for Powell to resign, but the president does not have the power to fire him over a monetary policy dispute.
Powell, who was nominated by Trump in late 2017 to lead the Fed and then nominated for a second term by Democratic President Joe Biden four years later, has said he intends to serve out his term as Fed chief, which ends on May 15, 2026.
Last week, the White House intensified its criticism of how the Fed is being run when the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, sent Powell a letter saying Trump was “extremely troubled” by cost overruns in the $2.5 billion renovation of its historic headquarters in Washington.
Powell responded by asking the U.S. central bank’s inspector general to review the project.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; editing by Rami Ayyub)
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