25 July—Does Donald Trump realize that Jerome Powell, while chairman of the Federal Reserve, is only one of twelve members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) that pretty well—but not absolutely—controls interest by setting the target range for the so-called federal funds rate, which banks charge one another for overnight lending? More to the point, does he care? Is that a rhetorical question?

To refresh your memory, Trump appointed Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve in 2017 and after confirmation by the Senate Powell assumed office for his first four-year term in February 2018. Trump started railing against Powell from the get-go because it turned out that the bully-in-chief couldn’t intimidate the independent agency’s honest, upstanding, independent chairman who knew what he was doing.

When Powell’s first term ran out, Democrat Joe Biden reappointed the Republican banker and lawyer for another four years and he was resworn in May 2022, with his term in the Fed chair running through May 2026. After that, Powell will remain as a Federal Reserve Governor until January 2028. There’s no way for Trump to get rid of Powell or any Fed officials. Unless, of course, he can find some way to fire them “for cause,” which he’d trump up with the collusion of his flunkies in the administration and sustain with the cooperation of his pals and other enablers on the Supreme Court.

Largely because Donald Trump is a crass ass who has always blamed everybody else for his own monumental screw-ups, he’s called Jerome Powell a “major loser,” a “fool,” a “knucklehead,” and “stupid” for not cutting interest rates to counteract the inflation resulting largely from the notorious Trump retaliatory and punitive tariffs (as well as Biden’s ironically titled Inflation Reduction Act, to be perfectly honest).

When Trump bitched that talking to Powell was like “talking to a chair” one wonders whether the scumbag-in-chief realized he was punning.

Even after Powell is replaced by a Trump flunky as Fed chair in 2026, he can remain on the FOMC until the expiration of his term as a Fed governor. And given all the possible scheduled appointments Trump can make through the end of his unethical, corrupt tenure, he can’t lawfully put enough flunkies on the FOMC to do their master’s bidding and thus screw the country and the world even more. But you can bet that Trump will do anything to get his evil way . . .