Donald Trump nominates Powell in November 2017 , administered by
Randal Quarles, as chair in February 2018 in 2018 On November 2, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Powell to serve as the
chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing
Janet Yellen at the helm of the
central bank. On December 5, the
Senate Banking Committee approved Powell's nomination to be chair in a 22–1 vote, with Senator
Elizabeth Warren casting the lone dissenting vote. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, 2018, by an 84–13 vote.
First Trump administration (2018–2021) One of Powell's first actions was to continue to raise US interest rates, as a response to the increasing strength of the US economy. He also announced that the Fed would reduce its asset portfolio from $4.5 trillion to a range of $2.5–3 trillion over four years in a process called
quantitative tightening. This tight policy drew public criticism from President Trump, who expressed second thoughts about nominating Powell and said that the chair was too enthusiastic about raising rates. Financial assets of all classes declined over 2018 and markets erupted in
volatility in December. Powell abandoned quantitative tightening in early 2019, leading to a recovery in asset prices. Trump continued to state, with increasing hostility, that Powell was not reacting quickly enough. As a
trade war with China escalated over the summer of 2019, Trump called the Fed's policies "insane" and labelled Powell an "enemy." He privately discussed with White House counsel the possibility of firing Powell, which Powell dismissed. In an August interview, Trump said that he completely disagreed with Powell's approach and called for a sharp cut in interest rates. Trump also questioned if Powell or
General Secretary Xi Jinping of the
Chinese Communist Party was a greater "enemy" of the United States. In October 2019, as asset prices waned, Powell announced the Fed would return to expanding its balance sheet, which led to a global rally in assets. Powell said the Fed's actions were not
quantitative easing, but some dubbed them as being QE4. Where Bernanke-era quantitative easing was conducted through outright purchases of assets, Powell's expansion operates through overnight
repurchase agreements (repos) where the seller has the option to reverse the transaction. The Fed's
primary dealers and other banks use the repo facilities to sell Treasury and agency securities in exchange for credit to supplement their cash on hand.
COVID-19 recession response via
videotelephony in June 2020 In early 2020, Powell launched an unprecedented series of actions to counter the
financial market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which included a dramatic expansion of the Fed's balance sheet and introduction of new tools, including the direct purchase of corporate bonds and direct lending programs. Powell emphasized
monetary policy alone without an equivalent
fiscal policy response from Congress would widen
income inequality. Powell's actions earned him bipartisan praise, including from Trump, who told
Fox News that he was "very happy with his performance" and that "over the last period of six months, he's really stepped up to the plate." inflation reaching 7% as of 2021 On November 19, 2020, after disagreeing with Treasury Secretary
Steve Mnuchin, Powell agreed to return unused crisis funds to the
United States Treasury. Both he and Mnuchin then urged Congress to approve more stimulus.
Asset price inflation To mitigate the
financial market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Powell accepted asset price inflation as a consequence of Fed policy actions. Powell was criticized for using high levels of direct and indirect quantitative easing as valuations hit levels last seen at the peaks of previous bubbles. The Fed's acceptance of asset price inflation from 2019 onwards resulted in levels of wealth inequality not seen in the United States since the 1920s. Fed asset purchases were also seen as contributing to the
K-shaped recovery that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, where the asset bubbles protected the wealthier segments of society from the financial effects of the pandemic, at the expense of most other segments, In January 2021,
Edward Luce of the
Financial Times warned that the Fed's use of asset purchases, and the resultant widening of wealth inequality, could lead to political and social instability in the United States, saying: "The majority of people are suffering amid a Great Gatsby-style boom at the top." Powell's expansion of credit through
repo contracts, seen as a new "
Greenspan put," In June 2020,
Jim Grant likened Powell's policy to drug dealing, calling him "the Fed's Dr. Feelgood." In a September 2020 testimony, Powell said: "Our actions were in no way an attempt to relieve pain on Wall Street." By the end of 2020, Wall Street investment banks recorded their best year in history, and
Bloomberg called 2020," a great year for Wall Street, but a
bear market for Humans."
Mohamed El-Erian called Powell "a follower, not a leader," of markets. The
Washington Post called the Fed "addicted to propping up markets, even when there is no need." with market psychology "unhinged from market fundamentals." In August 2020,
Bloomberg News called Powell's policy "exuberantly asymmetric" (echoing
Alan Greenspan's "
irrational exuberance" quote from 1996), and that the "Powell Put" had become more extreme than the "Greenspan Put." For example, in equities, in housing, and in bonds.
Cryptocurrencies also saw dramatic increases in price during 2020, leading Powell to win the 2020
Forbes Person Of The Year In Crypto. The asset price boom during the pandemic attracted a generation of young investors who explicitly credited Powell for promoting froth in financial markets. Gathering in online communities like
Reddit's
r/wallstreetbets board, they discussed high-risk trades and shared
memes that depicted "J-Pow" using the Fed's money printer to flood the economy. In December 2020, Powell defended high asset prices by invoking the controversial
Fed model, saying: "Admittedly P/Es are high but that's maybe not as relevant in a world where we think the 10-year Treasury is going to be lower than it's been historically from a return perspective." The author of the Fed model,
Edward Yardeni, said Powell's actions could form the greatest financial bubble in history, while the
Wall Street Journal described Powell's comparison as an attempt to "rewrite the laws of investing." Powell received both bipartisan praise and criticism for the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary actions in early 2020 to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some commended the Fed's intervention, others raised concerns about the long-term consequences of the Fed's policies, including the potential for
severe inflation and increased
wealth inequality. As the Federal Reserve continued to apply high levels of monetary stimulus to further raise asset prices and support growth, some observers perceived a disconnect between asset prices and the economy. As Trump asserted that he gave Powell prominence, he believed that he had the authority to fire Powell, according to Bloomberg. Powell's interest rate strategy retained support from several
Republican senators, including
Pat Toomey of
Pennsylvania and
Richard Shelby of
Alabama. After Powell said that the
China–United States trade war caused uncertainty for the central bank in August, Trump questioned if Powell or Xi Jinping was a greater "enemy" of the United States.
Joe Biden with Powell and
Lael Brainard in November 2021 In August 2021, Powell expected the Fed to reduce economic support later in the year. Powell considered inflation transitory—a term Powell states should now be "retired." By December, Jerome Powell indicated an increase in the speed of tapering asset purchases—up to $30 billion per month—in response to widespread high inflation readings. In Jerome Powell's confirmation hearing in 2022 he described inflation as being a "severe threat" to the U.S. economic recovery due to "higher costs of essentials like food, housing and transportation." In response to high inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve began its rate hike cycle on March 17, 2022 when it raised rates by 25
basis points. The central bank proceeded to hike rates ten more times through July 2023—raising the benchmark rate by 5.25% cumulatively. US CPI—a widely used measure of inflation—peaked at 9.1% y/y in July 2022. In light of his term as chair expiring in February 2022, many Democrats began to express opposition to Powell's reappointment. In August 2021, progressive Democrats, including
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called on President
Joe Biden to replace Powell, criticizing him for failing to "mitigate the risk climate change poses to our financial system." In September 2021, Senator
Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, criticized Powell for his financial regulation track record and called him a "dangerous man to head up the Fed." Powell was renominated for a second term by President Joe Biden on November 22, 2021. His initial nomination expired at the end of the year and was returned to President Biden on January 3, 2022. President Biden presented his nomination to the Senate the following day. Hearings were held on Powell's nomination before the Senate Banking Committee on January 11, 2022. The committee favorably reported Powell's nomination to the Senate floor on March 16, 2022, in a 22–1 vote; Senator Elizabeth Warren was the lone member to vote against his nomination. His nomination for another term as chair through May 2026 was confirmed by the full U.S. Senate on May 12, 2022, in an 80–19 vote. Following Biden's renomination of Powell, the Fed Chairman retired his previous words "transitory inflation," and indicated a reduction in
quantitative easing (QE) and
mortgage-backed security (MBS) purchases due to the
2021–2023 inflation surge, with the
consumer price index (CPI) in November 2021 having reached 6.8%.
Second Trump administration (2025–present) Trump has expressed disapproval regarding the Fed's maintenance of higher interest rates. When questioned regarding whether the President has the authority to remove a sitting Fed Chair, Powell stated that this is "not permitted under the law." In April 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social that "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!" Legal scholars agree that a sitting Fed Chair cannot be removed without cause. Trump has continued to raise the possibility of firing Powell, with varying degrees of urgency. On July 16, 2025, Trump reportedly penned a letter to dismiss Powell as Fed Chair. However, Trump later denied those reports to reporters at the White House.
DoJ investigation In 2025, Powell became the subject of a
federal investigation related to his congressional testimony. In July 2025,
Politico reported that
Russell Vought, the
director of the Office of Management and Budget, was investigating a $2.5 billion renovation to the
Eccles Building that could serve as the basis for a "for cause" removal. On January 11, 2026, Powell stated that the
Department of Justice had served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas two days earlier, threatening a criminal indictment related to his testimony in June 2025 before the Senate Banking Committee, which concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings. Powell issued a press release that stated: In a joint public statement released the day after Powell announced the subpoenas and investigation, former Federal Reserve Chairs
Alan Greenspan,
Ben Bernanke, and
Janet Yellen, former U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury
Henry Paulson,
Timothy Geithner,
Robert Rubin, and
Jacob Lew, economists
Glenn Hubbard,
Kenneth Rogoff, and
Jared Bernstein with others in defense of Powell that argued that the investigation was "an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine [the Federal Reserve's]
independence", and that "This is how monetary policy is made in
emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly". In an interview with CNBC, Yellen stated that Trump's demands for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to lower interest payments on the
national debt "is the road to a
banana republic." On January 12, central bank governors from 11 institutions issued a statement saying they "stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H Powell, including heads of the
European Central Bank, the
Bank of England, the
Bank of Canada, the
Bank of International Settlements, and the central banks of Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, South Korea, Australia, and Brazil. The
Financial Times called the statement "an unprecedented show of support". Jerome Powell was the most popular American political official of 13 surveyed, according to a Gallup poll from December. In response to the subpoena announcement, fan edits and AI songs in support of Powell trended on social media. Polling from September 2025 found that 70% of Americans thought Trump should not replace Federal Reserve members who disagreed with him. In response to the investigation announcement, Republican U.S. Senator
Thom Tillis, who sits on the
Senate Banking Committee, announced that he would oppose any Federal Reserve nomination (including the vacancy of Powell's seat as chair in May 2026) until the legal matter was resolved, stating: "If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question". Republican Senator
Lisa Murkowski supported Tillis' blocking all Federal Reserve nominations in response to the investigation, while Republican Senator
Kevin Cramer and
House Financial Services Committee Chair
French Hill also criticized the investigation. In March 2026, Judge
James Boasberg quashed the grand jury subpoenas, writing in his ruling, "There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the president or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will." He continued, "On the other side of the scale, the government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the president.” US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced in April 2026 that the Department of Justice is dropping the investigation. == Personal life ==