National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday that the president’s authority to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was “being looked into.”
Asked in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” whether he believes President Donald Trump has the authority to fire Powell, whom the president has repeatedly bashed over interest rates, Hassett said, “That’s a thing that’s being looked into.”
“But certainly if there’s cause, he does,” Hassett added.
Hassett’s comments come days after Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought criticized renovations of the Federal Reserve headquarters, saying in a letter to Powell that Trump was “extremely troubled by your mismanagement of the Federal Reserve System.”
Vought sent Powell nearly a dozen questions about the renovations, asking for details about whether the project deviated from plans approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees the design of federal projects.
Asked whether the price tag of the renovations could be used to fire Powell, Hassett said, “I think that whether the president decides to push down that road or not is going to depend a lot on the answers that we get to the questions that Russ Vought sent to the Fed.”
Trump has consistently slammed Powell for not lowering interest rates, calling the chair “very stupid” and dubbing him “Too Late Powell.” Powell has said that the Federal Reserve has held off on cutting interest rates because of Trump’s tariffs, pointing to higher inflation forecasts. The president told NBC News late last year, that he did not have plans to cut short Powell’s term, which ends in May 2026.
But since then, the president has indicated he wanted Powell out. He said in an April post to Truth Social that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough,” though days later he told reporters that he had “no intention” of firing him.
The Supreme Court in May allowed the president to fire members of independent federal agencies, though the court indicated that the decision did not necessarily apply to the Federal Reserve because it is a “uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”
Neither the White House nor the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors immediately responded to requests for further comment on Hassett’s remarks.
Steep tariffs on Brazil
Whiplash on steep country-by-country tariffs — now set to go into effect Aug. 1 — have raised questions about the state of potential trade deals. The administration has pointed to trade deficits as a primary reason for steep tariffs on imports from many countries, and officials have maintained that negotiations over trade practices are ongoing.
But Trump brought a country’s internal practices into the equation last week when he announced that he would hit imports from Brazil with a 50% tariff. In Trump’s letter detailing the tariff rate, he criticized the treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing charges for allegedly plotting a coup to maintain power after a 2022 electoral defeat. Trump said the tariff rate was “due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections.”
“Normally, it’s not necessarily about a specific country, but with Brazil, it is,” Hassett told “This Week” host Jonathan Karl. “Their actions have shocked the president at times, and he’s made them clear about that.”
Asked about the authority under which Trump could impose tariffs based on a country’s judicial system, Hassett said, “If he thinks it’s a national defense emergency, or if he thinks a national security threat, then he has the authority under IEEPA,” referring to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Karl asked Hassett how Brazil’s handling of a criminal case constituted a national security threat, prompting Hassett to say, “Well, that’s not the only thing.”
Pressed again about Trump’s letter, which specifically addressed Bolsonaro, Hassett pivoted to discussing trade deficits.
“The bottom line is that what we’re doing, absolutely, collectively, across every country, is we’re onshoring production in the U.S. to reduce the national emergency that is that we have a massive trade deficit that’s putting it at risk should we need production in the U.S. because of a national security crisis,” Hassett said.
The U.S., however, had a $7.4 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which Karl pointed out.
Hassett responded to Karl’s interjection about the United States’ trade surplus with Brazil, saying, “If you don’t have an overall strategy for this, then there’ll be trans shipping and everything else, and you won’t achieve your objectives.”
