President Donald Trump today lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, pushing for interest rate cuts and saying, quote, Powell's termination cannot come fast enough. That comes as the Trump administration's tariffs continue to cause global fallout and uncertainty, and Wall Street is reacting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 500 points today

in another big sell-off. Tech stocks held firmer, with the NASDAQ only falling minimally,

and the S&P 500 gained but also minimally. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank cut its key interest

rate by a quarter point amid what its president called exceptional uncertainty. All of this,

as the International Monetary Fund warns, it expects the world's economy to grow slower this year

with higher inflation than previously predicted. For a closer look at all of this now, I'm joined by

Austin Goulsby, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Welcome back to the News Hour.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you for having me, Anna.

So I want to begin with the latest escalation in what's been President Trump's long-running attacks on Chair Powell.

Here is part of what the president had to say today.

I don't think he's doing the job.

He's too late. Always too late, a little slow, and I'm not happy with him.

I let him know it, and if I want him out, he'll be out of there real fast, believe me.

So the question is, can the President fire the Federal Reserve Chair if he wants to,

and are you worried that he'll try? Well, I mean, one of the oldest rules in the book is don't

ask legal advice from a guy with an econ PhD. So I don't know the answer to any of that. What I will say,

I like all economists, virtually unanimous, believe in the importance

of monetary independence and that the Fed, by law, has a dual job. Maximize employment,

stabilize prices, and that's the thing that guides what the feds decisions are going to be.

It's got to be based on economic conditions.

We're in an almost unprecedented environment where we're coming into this year and the Q1 of this year, the hard data, quite strong.

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