Watch Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s Icy Reply to Question About Whether He’d Resign if Trump Asked: ‘No’

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In response to criticism from President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he would not resign if he were asked.

“If the President asked you to resign, would you do it?” Powell was asked by a panelist at the annual American Economics Association conference Friday morning, to which he answered swiftly, “No.”

Powell had been sitting next to former Federal Reserve chairmen Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke when he was asked about his impending meetings with the President regarding Fed policy, which the President has emphasized in the past as the number one problem with the economy.

“Nothing’s been scheduled, I would say that meetings between presidents and Fed chairs do happen,” he told moderator and New York Times reporter Neil Irwin. “I can’t think of any Fed chairs who didn’t eventually meet with the president, but again nothing has been scheduled and I don’t have anything to report.”

The President has repeatedly criticized the Fed’s increasing monetary restrictions and interest rates, which he blamed for the market drop in a phone call with Fox News host Shannon Bream in October.

“The problem in my opinion is Treasury and the Fed,” Trump said. “The Fed is going loco and there’s no reason for them to do it. I’m not happy about it.”

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December for the seventh time since Trump took office, four of which happened under Powell, and has signaled that it would consider raising rates again in 2019.