Trump's leading options to replace 'stupid' Fed boss

Speculation is mounting that Donald Trump is planning to announce an early replacement for Jerome "Jay" Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve – partly in an attempt to undermine the boss of America's central bank.

- JAMES MOORE

Powell’s sin is that he has refused to bend the knee to the president on the subject of interest rates. Trump has now let it be known, in crude, insulting remarks to reporters while on his visit to Europe for the Nato summit in The Hague, that he is considering "three or four" possible successors to the "terrible" and "stupid" incumbent, whose term ends in May next year.

"I mean," he goes on, before adding that because I think he’s terrible, Trump said soon fortunately; Powell was "average mentally" and had "low IQ" for what he does – which is mostly steadfastly refusing to cut interest rates to mitigate against the so-called "Trump Slump" caused by tariffs.

Powell is one of Trump’s first-term appointees – he was then reappointed by Joe Biden – but relations between the two have soured like milk on a hot day. Firing him early, or even appointing an interim "shadow" would be an unprecedented move. It could catalyse a market panic. Just ask Liz Truss about the consequences of undermining a central bank’s independence.