Trump really, really wants to tank the economy

President Donald Trump is reportedly going to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a likely illegal move to end the bank's independence and install a new chair who would carry out Trump’s demand for an insanely low 1% interest rate.

According to a White House official, Trump met with a group of GOP lawmakers Tuesday night to discuss a crypto bill and whether he should fire Powell.

“The president asked lawmakers how they felt about firing the Fed chair. They expressed approval for firing him. The president indicated he likely will soon,” the official said.

Trump even showed the lawmakers a letter he drafted to fire Powell, according to The New York Times. One of the GOP lawmakers present was Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who posted on X Tuesday night that Powell's firing was "imminent."

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"Hearing Jerome Powell is getting fired! From a very serious source," Luna wrote after her meeting with Trump, later adding, "I’m 99% sure firing is imminent."

And on Wednesday, other GOP lawmakers publicly egged on Trump to give Powell the axe.

"Today’s a great day to fire Jerome Powell," Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama wrote on X.

But Trump, who has been railing on Powell for months, claimed on Wednesday that he isn’t firing him.

“He’s doing a lousy job, but no, I’m not talking about that,” Trump told reporters. “Fortunately we get to make a change in the next, what, eight months and we’ll pick somebody that’s good."

And though Trump said that he hasn’t fully ruled out firing Powell, he added that it’s “highly unlikely” that he will.

In yet another sign of his cognitive decline, Trump went on to tell reporters that he “was surprised he was appointed—surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.”

In actuality, it was Trump who appointed Powell in 2017.

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Banking experts say that if Trump does fire Powell, it will have devastating impacts for the economy.

“We believe the market reaction would be large. The empirical and academic evidence on the impact of a loss of central bank independence is fairly clear: In extreme cases, both the currency and the bond market can collapse as inflation expectations move higher, real yields drop and broader risk premia increase on the back of institutional erosion,” Deutsche Bank head of FX research George Saravelos wrote in a memo.

When Trump seemed likely to fire Powell in April, stock markets plummeted as investors panicked. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 1,000 points in a single day, and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ each lost nearly 2.5% of their value amid the reports.

The similar situation happened after news broke Wednesday that Trump is again considering firing Powell, who has said that he is not leaving and that firing him would be against the law.

But Powell’s term expires in May 2026, at which point Trump will be able to choose his successor.

Democrats, meanwhile, are questioning the timing of Trump’s latest outburst against Powell.

“Trump is willing to destroy the independence of the Fed and tank bond markets if it would get you to stop talking about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois wrote on X.

We’ll see if it works.

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