Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the entire Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful.
Bessent, speaking with CNBC, declined to comment on a report that he had advised President Donald Trump not to fire Fed chair Jerome Powell, saying it would be the president’s decision.
But he said the institution should be reviewed, citing what he called “fear-mongering over tariffs” despite the emergence thus far of little, if any, inflationary effect.
“I think that what we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,” Bessent said, adding that he would give a keynote speech at the U.S. central bank on Monday evening at the start of a regulatory conference.
“If this were the (Federal Aviation Administration) and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why. Why has this happened?” he said. “All these PhDs over there, I don’t know what they do.”
Trump has railed repeatedly against Powell and urged him to resign because of the central bank’s reluctance to deliver interest-rate cuts. In recent days the president has also taken aim at a $2.5 billion renovation at the Fed’s Washington headquarters that has exceeded its budget, suggesting there could be fraud involved and it might be a reason to oust Powell.
Powell last week responded to a Trump administration official’s demands for information about cost overruns on the project, saying it was large in scope and involved a number of safety upgrades and hazardous materials removals.
Bessent declined to be drawn on predictions that U.S. financial markets could crash if Powell was ousted.
Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026, although he is due to stay on as a Fed governor through January 2028.
Bessent noted that Powell’s term ends in May, adding that another governor seat would come open in January.
Gonna replace everything with trump bux, powered by dogetears. What are dogetears you ask? Don’t worry it’s great 👍 really the best USA: hmm maybe this guy’s onto something here
As much as I think the Fed is a shithouse, I have zero faith in this admin to do anything positive with it.
All the stuff the fed is doing now is a direct result of Trump’s handling of COVID. Those rates were low for a super long time until we got a president trump and they have been ruined ever since. Yet no one is blaming him for some reason.
And folks assured me Bessent was the only good Trump pick. 😂🤣
Shut up, Scott.
China is currently preventing at least 2 U.S citizens (a Wells Fargo banker and U.S. Department of Commerce employee) from exiting the country, and as he’s holding U.S. markets hostage, Bessent casually mentions:
Bessent Says China Talks Could Include Its Russia, Iran Oil Purchases
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the next round of US-China talks could include a discussion of China’s purchases of Russian and Iranian oil, a signal that the focus could shift from more traditional trade issues to ones that cross over into matters of national security.
“Trade is in a good place,” Bessent said on CNBC, referring to recent and ongoing negotiations with China. “And I think now we can start talking about other things. The Chinese, unfortunately, are very large purchasers of sanctioned Iranian oil, sanctioned Russian oil — so we could start discussing that.”
