Trump says won't try ousting Fed's Powell

Donald Trump will not try ousting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the central banker's term ends and would consider JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon for treasury secretary if he won the Nov. 5 election, the former president told Bloomberg in an interview published on Tuesday.

JPMorgan declined to comment on Trump's remarks. Powell's term as chair expires in 2026. Powell's seat on the Fed Board of Governors expires in 2028. The Trump interview was conducted in late June, according to Bloomberg.

Powell said on Monday he has no plans to leave his post as head of the US central bank before his term expires. 

Trump said in the Bloomberg interview that the Federal Reserve should abstain from cutting rates before the November elections in which the Republican presidential candidate faces Democrat Biden.

Powell has been asked repeatedly over the last week whether the election would play into the Fed's decision on whether to cut rates, and Powell said again on Monday that he and other central bank policymakers do not take politics into account in their decision-making.

On Dimon, Trump said he was considering him for the top job at the Treasury Department. Trump had until recently been critical of Dimon.

Dimon, like many other corporate executives, had condemned the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters who made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 elections that Trump lost to Biden.

However, recently Dimon has praised some of Trump's positions and policies.

"Take a step back, be honest. He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China," Dimon told CNBC earlier this year. "He wasn't wrong about some of these critical issues."

Trump also said in the interview that he would reduce the corporate tax rate to as low as 15 percent.

Reuters