ADVERTISEMENT

Mnuchin Won’t Take Bait on Trump’s ‘Pathetic’ Description of Fed

Mnuchin Won’t Take Bait on Trump’s ‘Pathetic’ Description of Fed

(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on President Donald Trump’s characterization of the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Mnuchin was asked if he shared Trump’s recent assessment of the Fed as “pathetic,” “slow-moving,” and putting the U.S. “at a disadvantage” to other countries.

“I’m not going to make comments on that. It would be inappropriate for me as Treasury secretary,” he said.

Mnuchin was also asked if Trump had the right to remove or demote the Fed chief as he said at a White House press briefing on Saturday, reviving an idea he floated a year ago.

No Fed chairman has been removed by a president, and the law that created the central bank says its officials can only be “removed for cause” -- a transgression believed to be more than simply a disagreement over policy.

“I’m not the general counsel,” Mnuchin said. “So I’m not aware of what advice the president has been given.”

When Trump floated the idea of demoting or removing Powell a year ago, the Fed chairman pushed back in a “60 Minutes” interview: “The law is clear that I have a four-year term. And I fully intend to serve it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.