WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it is "highly unlikely" that he will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, but left the door open to taking action against the central bank head for "possible" fraud.
Trump said Powell is "doing a lousy job," and continued to lambast his hitherto refusal to lower interest rates because of inflation concerns.
"We're not planning on doing anything. We're very concerned. He's doing a little renovation for $2.5 billion of the Fed building, a renovation, and they have a close to $900 million cost overrun, and it's a shame," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"I don't rule out anything, but I think it's highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud. I mean, it's possible there's fraud involved with the $2.5, $2.7 billion renovation. This is a renovation. How do you spend $2.7 billion? And he didn't have proper clearance, etc, etc.," he added.
Trump said he was "surprised" that Powell was appointed to the post, but it was he who initially tapped Powell for the role in 2018.
The president acknowledged a meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday in which he confirmed that he "talked about the concept of firing" Powell.
"I said, 'What do you think?' Almost every one of them said I should, but I'm more conservative than they are," he noted.
The New York Times reported that Trump drafted a letter in which he dismissed the central bank chair, and presented it to lawmakers during the meeting on Tuesday.
Powell has repeatedly stated that his firing is "not permitted under the law."
Markets were mostly flat after Trump's comments, with all three major indices up by less than half a percent.