Trump–Powell Standoff Tests Fed Independence in Markets (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: President Trump's long-simmering war against Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve Chair, it has officially gone nuclear. Now, let's be clear about something. This has mostly been a one-sided war up to this point, one where Donald Trump has made very clear he wants Powell and the Fed to lower interest rates, something that would go completely against the longstanding independence of the Fed. That pressure has been immense over the course of, not just the last several months, but the last several years, and Powell, for the most part, has stayed pretty politically correct, kept his mouth shut, not wanting to invite more attacks. That all changed when Powell himself announced that a potential criminal indictment was coming from Trump's Justice Department, based on a $2.5 billion renovation of a historic Fed building. But Powell wasn't willing to just take that as is. He's pushing back hard.

[00:00:47] Speaker 2: This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. 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.

[00:01:05] Speaker 1: Saying it is pretext, saying it is an attack on the independence of the Fed, and markets are reacting. Jittery, without any question, stock spawns the dollar, all dropping, gold soaring to record highs. The reality is this is a massive moment for the independence of the most important financial institution in the entire world.