(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s job is safe for now, according to Larry Kudlow, top economic adviser to President Donald Trump.
“There is no effort to remove him,” Kudlow said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday.
Kudlow said he supports the central bank’s independence and that there are no plans presently to change Powell’s job.
Trump has repeatedly blasted Powell over the Fed’s interest rate increases last year. The president has said told confidants that he believes he has the authority to replace Powell as Fed chairman, demoting him to the level of board governor, according to people familiar with the matter. But Trump has said he doesn’t plan to do it. The president chose Powell as Chair, replacing Janet Yellen in 2018.
Kudlow reiterated his call for the Fed to "take back" its interest rate hike in December. The Fed raised interest rates four times last year, with the last increase at the end of the year drawing especially heavy criticism from the Trump administration. Fed officials have shifted their outlook since then, and in June they opened the door to a rate cut.
Powell is scheduled to appear before Congress Wednesday and Thursday in his semiannual testimony on monetary policy to legislators.
