Trump's Persecution of Jerome Powell Is Even Crazier Than It Looks

Messing with Federal Reserve independence might spark inflation, and everyone hates that.

https://prospect.org/2026/01/14/trump-persecution-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-central-bank/


President Trump and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell during a visit to the Federal Reserve, July 24, 2025, in Washington. Credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo

The Trump administration is carrying out a corrupt prosecution of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, according to the man himself. In a video posted to official Fed social media accounts on Sunday, Powell said: “This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings … Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”

Powell is obviously correct. For one thing, Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history, using his position to collect bribes from all over the world, and to reward favored insiders. It beggars belief that this man could be honestly concerned about a modest alleged budget overrun in a Federal Reserve construction contract—not least because the budget for his hideous Trump ballroom that he illegally tore down the East Wing of the White House to construct, which is openly funded by corporate bribes, has doubled over the last few months. If Powell just gave in to Trump’s bullying, these fake charges would quite obviously go away.

Trump later claimed he had nothing to do with the prosecution. It reportedly might have been a freelance effort from Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro. It’s one of the classic questions of the Trump regime: Is the president lying, or is one of the television hosts with a drinking problem he appointed to high office “working toward the Führer”? Yet there is an odd background to the Get Powell effort that is going underdiscussed—the politics of inflation.

Trump plainly wants interest rates to go down, which is widely assumed to be politically beneficial to him. Lower interest rates theoretically make it easier for businesses to invest, which can boost the economy. And if it’s cheaper to finance a car or a mortgage, people may directly benefit as well. But lower interest rates are liable to spark higher prices, and just a few years ago we saw that Americans, along with most people around the world, absolutely despise inflation. As the Financial Times points out, every single governing party in the rich world lost vote share in 2024—the first time that had ever happened. Most analysts agree inflation was the single biggest factor in this trend.

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