Advertising

Kevin O’Leary warned President Donald Trump not to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during a Monday afternoon segment on Fox News in which he warned that the market would not “take well” to a decision to send Powell packing.

Trump has spent the last few months arguing Powell ought to lower interest rates and upbraiding him for failing to do so. “He is doing a lousy job. I’m not talking about that. Fortunately, we get to make a change in the next what, eight months or so. And we’ll pick somebody that’s good and we’ll pick somebody — I want a fair job. We want to see lower interest rates. Our country deserves it. We’re making a lot of money and doing great as a country,’ said Trump last week amid reporting that he was considering firing Powell.

During a conversation with Fox News anchor Sandra Smith on Monday, O’Leary weighed in on the matter.

“You know, Fed bashing is what every administration does. It’s always fair to bash the Fed, constantly bash the Fed. Every president-” he began before Smith briefly cut in to ask if it’s a “convenient foil.”

“Well, it’s great because it’s so easy to do, and every president wants lower interest rates for obvious reasons. However, the Fed independence is what gives America its position as the number one

place to invest on Earth. So it would be very, very difficult to have presidents firing Feds. That would not be taken well by the markets, and I think Trump knows that,” continued the Shark Tank star. “I think [Scott] Bessent knows that, but it’s always fun to bash the Fed. I mean, if I were the president, I’d bash the Fed, too. Why not? But there are some good questions about policy. Why are we paying interest, for example, on bank reserves when half the banks. or many of them, are foreign? I mean there’s a lot of issues here.”

Watch above via Fox News.

Tags: Donald Trump, Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, Kevin O'Leary