It’s hard to recall a Federal Reserve Chair who has drawn as much ire from a sitting or former president as Jerome Powell has from Donald J. Trump. The attacks are relentless. To Trump, Powell is a convenient scapegoat, a man to blame when the economy hiccups or when interest rates refuse to bow to political whim. But what Powell understands and Trump never quite grasped, is the intricate, unglamorous, and stubbornly complex machinery of the American economy.
In Trump’s world, the economy is a reality TV plotline. Booms are credited to him; busts are blamed on enemies, real or imagined. The Fed, in Trump’s view, should behave like one of his former apprentices: loyal, obedient, and always ready to say “yes, sir.” Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest, Jerome Powell plays a different game. And he plays it by the rules.
Trump often treated Powell like an errant employee, once tweeting that Powell had “no guts” and comparing him to a golfer who “can’t putt.” But Powell wasn’t elected to flatter the president’s ego. His job was and remains, to steward the most powerful central bank in the world with independence, caution, and a reverence for data over dogma. In that, he has largely succeeded, especially when measured against the chaotic and often economically incoherent ideas coming from Trump’s pulpit.
Let’s not forget that Trump, a man who claims deep business acumen, proposed everything from defaulting on U.S. debt to slashing interest rates to zero during economic expansions. These are not radical ideas. They are reckless ones. Ideas that would undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar, destabilize markets, and punish savers and retirees. Powell, for all his critics, has remained grounded in the fundamentals of sound monetary policy. He has bent but not broken under immense political pressure.
Powell’s most critical test came when he navigated the post-pandemic economy. Inflation roared back to life in ways not seen since the early 1980s. Critics from both sides lined up to take their shots, but Powell methodically raised interest rates, risking short-term pain to bring long-term stability. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t popular. But it was necessary.
Trump, meanwhile, floated simplistic solutions, claiming he alone could bring inflation “down quickly” never explaining how, never offering substance, only slogans. That’s the Trump doctrine on economics: bully the markets, insult the Fed, and declare victory regardless of outcome.
But real economic leadership isn’t about bravado. It’s about trust. The markets trust Powell. Investors, central banks, and analysts across the globe may quibble with his timing or tone, but they understand that he operates with transparency and principle. Trump, by contrast, is guided by impulse. He demands loyalty but offers none. He seeks quick fixes, even if they mean long-term damage.
The irony, of course, is that Trump constantly positioned himself as the master of the economy. But the numbers never really bore that out. Pre-COVID growth under Trump hovered around a respectable but unremarkable 2.5%, in line with previous administrations. His much-touted tax cuts failed to deliver the investment boom he promised. Deficits ballooned. Manufacturing jobs plateaued. And when the pandemic hit, the economy cratered, as any would but Trump's mismanagement only deepened the pain.
Powell, meanwhile, helped architect a rapid fiscal and monetary response that prevented complete collapse. The Fed’s actions, slashing rates, injecting liquidity, stabilizing credit markets, were essential in laying the groundwork for the post-pandemic recovery. Trump took credit, of course, while attacking Powell in the same breath. It's like blaming the pilot while you’re flying safely at 30,000 feet just because the peanuts weren't salted.
This is the core of the divide: Powell understands the economy as an intricate ecosystem. Trump sees it as a scoreboard. Powell speaks in nuanced assessments. Trump yells in headlines. Powell takes responsibility. Trump deflects.
In the coming years we should remember that Powell’s greatest strength may be his refusal to play politics. In a time when truth is cheap and loyalty is transactional, Powell has held the line. He’s made mistakes, no Fed Chair is perfect but he’s done so in the pursuit of policy, not applause.
So the next time Trump throws a tantrum about interest rates or inflation or "boneheads at the Fed," remember: one man is doing the hard, thankless work of economic stewardship. The other is performing. And when it comes to the economy, performance only gets you so far.
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