The chief of the economic council claims that Trump’s ability to dismiss Powell from Fed is `examined ”

The director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, said on Sunday that the authority of the president to draw President of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell was “examined”.

Asked in an interview on ABC News “this week” if he thought that President Donald Trump has the power to dismiss Powell, that the president has hit interest rates several times, Hassett said: “This is something that is examined.”

“But certainly if there is a cause, he does,” added Hassett.

Hassett’s comments came a few days after the director of management and budget Russell Vought criticized the renovations From the headquarters of the Federal Reserve, saying in a letter to Powell that Trump was “extremely disturbed by your mismanagement of the federal reserve system”.

Vought sent Powell for almost a dozen questions about renovations, asking details on if the project has moved away from the plans approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees the design of federal projects.

When asked if the price of renovations could be used to dismiss Powell, Hassett said: “I think that if the president decides to push or not depend a lot about the answers that Russ Vought has sent to the Fed.”

Trump has constantly criticized Powell so as not to reduce interest rates, calling the chair “very stupid” and nicknning it “too late Powell”. Powell said that the federal reserve has maintained the reduction in interest rates due to Trump prices, indicating higher inflation forecasts. The president told NBC News At the end of last year, that he did not intend to reduce Powell’s mandate, which ended in May 2026.

But since then, the president said he wanted Powell. He said in An article in April In truth, social that “the dismissal of Powell cannot come quickly enough”, although a few days later, he told journalists that he had “no intention” to dismiss him.

THE Supreme Court in May As much as the president to dismiss members of independent federal agencies, although the court indicated that the decision was not necessarily applied to the federal reserve because it is a “quasi-private entity” only structured “.

Neither the White House nor the Council of Governors of the Federal Reserve immediately responded to the requests for additional comments on Hassett’s remarks.

Strong prices on Brazil

Whiplash on the steep prices of the country by country – now ready to enter into force August 1 – have raised questions about the state of potential trade agreements. The administration has indicated that trade deficits are a main reason for steep prices on imports from many countries, and officials argued that negotiations on business practices are underway.

But Trump brought the internal practices of a country to the equation last week when he announced that he would hit Brazil imports with a 50%price. In Trump’s letter detailing the rate rate, he criticized the treatment of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who faces accusations would have plotted a coup To maintain power after an electoral defeat in 2022. Trump said that the rate rate was “due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks against free elections”.

“Normally, it is not necessarily a specific country, but with Brazil, it is,” said Hassett to the host “this week” Jonathan Karl. “Their actions sometimes shocked the president, and he clearly explained them on this subject.”

Asked about the authority under which Trump could impose prices according to the judicial system of a country, Hassett said: “If he thinks that it is an emergency of national defense, or if he thinks a threat of national security, then he has authority under the ieepa”, referring to the international law on economic powers.

Karl asked Hassett how Brazil management of a criminal case was a national security threat, which prompted Hassett to say: “Well, it is not the only thing.”

Thrown again on Trump’s letter, which specifically addressed Bolsonaro, Hassett pivoted to discuss commercial deficits.

“The main thing is that what we do, absolutely, collectively, in all countries is that we are on production in the United States to reduce national emergency, is that we have a massive trade deficit that endangers it if we need production in the United States due to a national security crisis,” said Hassett.

However, the United States had a trade surplus of $ 7.4 billion with Brazil last year, according to the office of the American commercial representative, which Karl stressed.

Hassett responded to Karl’s interjection about the United States’s trade surplus with Brazil, saying: “If you do not have a global strategy for this, there will then be the transmitted shipping and everything else, and you will not reach your goals.”