Why Fed Chair Jerome Powell isn't backing down
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
For years, President Donald Trump has complained about Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell. He’s called him names, said he should be fired and has tried to pressure the Fed leader into lowering interest rates.
Trump’s feud against Powell escalated over the weekend, when Powell revealed that the Justice Department launched a criminal inquiry against him, alleging that Powell lied about the cost of renovations to the Federal Reserve buildings.
Host Elahe Izadi speaks to banking reporter Andrew Ackerman about what this probe could mean for Powell, the Fed and whether Trump’s consistent pressure on Powell could undermine America’s central bank forever.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For months, President Donald Trump has been complaining about one man in particular, |
| 0:08.1 | Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. |
| 0:13.2 | Trump has called him names, said he should be fired, and just keeps pressuring him to lower interest rates. |
| 0:21.6 | So we have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed. He probably won't. |
| 0:25.8 | I think he does a terrible job. He's costing us a lot of money. |
| 0:28.6 | Too late. I call him too late, Powell, because he's always too late. |
| 0:31.2 | We're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence. He's a knucklehead. |
| 0:35.4 | And then this weekend, we found out, the Justice Department |
| 0:38.8 | has launched a criminal probe into Powell. This might sound familiar, an official Trump doesn't like |
| 0:44.9 | now getting investigated by the DOJ. But the ripple effects of this showdown could extend far beyond |
| 0:51.7 | Washington and hit our pocketbooks. |
| 0:54.8 | It could affect mortgage rates, car payments, and how much things cost for you and me. |
| 1:03.9 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:08.2 | I'm Elahe-Izadi. |
| 1:10.2 | It's Wednesday, January 14th. Today, how the relationship |
| 1:14.3 | between Trump and Powell fell apart. And whether trust in America's central bank has now been |
| 1:20.6 | undermined forever. |
| 1:26.7 | Hey, Andrew, thanks for joining me in the studio today. |
| 1:29.2 | You're welcome. Thanks so much for having me again. |
| 1:31.2 | There has been so much going on with the Fed. I kind of think of you as the Fed Whisperer. |
| 1:36.1 | And I want to talk to you about like what is happening with this agency. But before we get to all |
| 1:40.8 | of that, on Sunday, the Federal Reserve itself published this video clip from the Fed |
... |
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