One of the biggest questions about President Donald Trump’s retribution crusade is how much of it is driven by strategy — i.e. making cautionary tales out of his foes — and how much if it is driven by personal grievance and pique.
The case of Fed Chair Jerome Powell would seem to suggest it’s largely the latter.
Because it has now backfired spectacularly thanks to Trump’s inability to let it go.
The president continued his campaign against Powell long after it started looking politically unwise. And now, Powell, whose term as chair ends on May 15, has decided to stay on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors because of that.
To sum up: Powell on Wednesday become the first chair since 1948 to opt to stay on the Fed board after his tenure as chair expires. His term as governor ends in 2028, so he’s well within his rights to do that. But it’s unusual.
His decision deprives Trump of a Fed board majority made up of his own appointees, at least for now. (Powell was elevated to chair by Trump but initially nominated by Barack Obama.)
The president feigned indifference on Thursday. “I don’t care if he stays on,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, despite previously threatening to fire Powell in just such a circumstance.
Powell made it abundantly clear that his motivation was Trump’s attempts to legally target him and the Fed (based on remarkably thin evidence). The president has attacked and targeted Powell for years over the Fed failing to lower interest rates like he wants.
“My concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” Powell said Wednesday. He called the legal attacks “unprecedented in our 113-year history” and cited “ongoing threats of additional such actions.”
Powell added: “I’m literally staying because of the actions that have been taken. I had long planned to be retiring. And, you know, the things that have happened in, really, in the last three months have, I think, left me no choice.”
While Powell didn’t say it directly, it seems possible that he might want to stay on in order to insulate himself.
Trump’s Department of Justice recently closed its criminal investigation and left the issue to an inspector general, after GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina demanded the investigation be closed before he would vote to confirm Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick, as the new Fed chair.
But you could understand if Powell might be concerned about the DOJ one day picking the case back up. Resigning would rob him of leverage in that circumstance.
Tillis has said the DOJ informed him the case wouldn’t be rekindled without a criminal referral from the IG. But Trump last week insisted the matter hadn’t been “dropped” and continued attacking Powell over the cost of renovations to the Fed building.
It was a telling comment from the president. The administration was trying to move past the issue and get Warsh confirmed, but Trump wouldn’t let it go.
That’s been a theme.
For years — dating back to Trump’s first term — Powell has made it abundantly clear that he wouldn’t buckle to the president’s pressure.
That was evident when Powell corrected Trump’s false claims about the Fed renovations in real time last year while standing next to him. It was evident when Powell attended Supreme Court oral arguments over Trump’s attempt to fire fellow Fed Governor Lisa Cook over similarly thin allegations. And it was perhaps most evident in the defiant video Powell released shortly after his criminal investigation became public in December.
But even as his tenure as chair wound down and the utility of pressuring him became less and less, Trump kept pushing.
As recently as April 15 — exactly one month before Powell’s tenure expires — Trump was on Fox Business Network threatening to fire him if he stayed on the Fed board. (It’s not clear Trump has this power.)
Then during an appearance last week on CNBC, Trump-friendly host Joe Kernen played a role often played by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. He gently suggested that maybe Trump should take a different, more politically expedient course — by letting go of Powell so Warsh could get confirmed.
In a five-minute exchange, Kernen repeatedly floated the idea, only to have Trump shrug it off.
“And somehow – no,” Trump said while talking over Kernen. “But, Joe, somehow we have to find out how this can happen.”
Kernen eventually said: “I’m just trying to look for an off-ramp to get for you –”
Trump responded: “Well, it is and it isn’t, Joe. You have to find out why a thing like that could happen.” And he plowed forward.
Then, after the DOJ seemed to heed Kernen’s advice a few days later and ended its Powell probe, Trump insisted the matter wasn’t finished.
His attempts at retribution against his foes have largely gone poorly. The initial indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were vacated. Comey has now been reindicted, but for something few expect to hold up in court. The DOJ has failed repeatedly to re-indict James. It failed to indict six Democratic lawmakers for telling servicemembers to disobey illegal orders. Other efforts to scrutinize the likes of Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California have failed to bear fruit.
But even if none of these efforts at retribution results in a conviction, there’s something to be said for merely making people’s lives hell. Others who might blow the whistle or stand in your way will see that and perhaps reconsider their choices.
At the same time, if Trump’s pursuits keep fizzling, that could hurt him politically, given people were never too keen on his retribution crusade in the first place.
(Polls have shown Americans saw the initial charges against Comey and James as less legitimate than the charges against Trump, which – despite MAGA’s complaints – majorities of Americans generally approved of.)
And when it comes to certain Trump targets, the president’s efforts can apparently steel their spine and make them even more of a thorn in his side.
That appears to be what’s happening with Powell. Trump’s pressure didn’t work, and now he gets to deal with Powell for even longer.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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