In 1997, billionaire Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein hired a then-relatively unknown member of the George H.W. Bush administration named Jerome Powell. Over the course of eight years, Powell led the private equity firm's industrial group and was a partner.

President Donald Trump has spent months criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, most recently arguing that the central bank should immediately cut interest rates to make it easier for the United States to finance ballooning deficits,

Jerome Powell has been the Federal Reserve Chair since February 2018. Trump nominated Powell in 2017, but now calls for him to resign. Bessent is

His comments follow President Donald Trump’s intensified criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, accusing him of undermining the US economy with high interest rates, while simultaneously unveiling sweeping new tariffs targeting Canada, the European Union, Mexico, and Brazil.

The Federal Reserve’s political independence — the sense that the world’s most powerful central bank makes decisions based on economic conditions, not short-term political considerations — is a critical national asset. President Donald Trump is eroding it in ways that could be bad for the country and his own agenda.

President Trump has the authority to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for cause if evidence supports that, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Sunday, and that the Fed “has a lot to answer for” on renovation cost overruns at its Washington headquarters.

Kevin Warsh, considered one of Trump's top candidates to run the central bank, also ripped the Fed's "hesitancy to cut rates."