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(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump said he has no plans to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell once he returns to the White House, saying “I don’t see it.” 

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Powell, whose term as Fed chair expires in May 2026, told reporters last month that he wouldn’t step aside early if Trump asked for his resignation.

“I think if I told him to, he would,” Trump said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, his first network television interview since winning the US election in November. “But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn’t.”

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Powell made it clear within days of the election that he’s ready to defend the Fed’s independence from political pressure, insisting the incoming president doesn’t have the power to fire him or other senior Fed leaders. 

Trump has previously said he should have a say in monetary policy and the setting of interest rates. “I think I have the right to say, ‘I think you should go up or down a little bit.’ I don’t think I should be allowed to order it,” Trump said in a Bloomberg News interview in October. “But I think I have the right to put in comments as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down.”

Trump also ridiculed the Fed chair’s role as “the greatest job in government,” saying, “you show up to the office once a month, and you say, ‘Let’s see, flip a coin.’” 

In the NBC interview transcript released Sunday, Trump was responding to a question about Powell’s statement refusing to step down if asked. While Trump appointed Powell, he explored whether he could fire or demote him during his first term in office after the Fed raised interest rates a number of times.

A Fed spokesperson declined to comment on Trump’s latest remarks. 

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Powell, for his part, has said he doesn’t expect tensions with the incoming administration. At a news conference on Nov. 7, he was asked whether he’d leave his post if Trump asked him to. “No,” Powell said.

Tariff Threats

Trump renewed his threat to impose tariffs on US trading partners if necessary, singling out the trade balance with Mexico and Canada and trying to suggest that US trade with the two countries amounts to subsidizing their economies.

“Why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state,” he said. “We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world.”

Asked about the broad consensus among economists that tariffs raise prices for consumers and whether he could guarantee that American families won’t pay more, Trump said, “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”

Trump roiled markets last month when he threatened a fresh round of levies, saying he would impose 10% tariffs on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada if the countries did not do more to prevent the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented migrants across US borders.

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The president-elect’s first specific threats targeting US trading partners since his election victory were a stark reminder of his eagerness to employ tariffs to advance his economic agenda dating back to his first White House term. 

In his latest comments, Trump didn’t mention those two demands, suggesting potentially broader pressure on Canada and Mexico over trade.

“And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field,” Trump told NBC.

Trump maintained his warning to the US’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies that “they have to pay their bills,” echoing a stance that caused trans-Atlantic friction during his first term. He declined to commit unconditionally to keeping the US in NATO during his second term.

“If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO,” he said.

On the campaign trail in February, Trump prompted alarm in Europe and criticism from President Joe Biden by saying he once told a European leader that he’d abandon NATO members to a Russian invasion if they hadn’t met defense-spending commitments.

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US Citizenship

Trump vowed once again to end birthright citizenship on his first day in office, arguing the US is the only country with such a law. “We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous,” he said.

The Constitution through the 14th Amendment states people can acquire US citizenship if they are born within US territory. Trump promised to abolish it through executive action, if possible, and said he tried to before but then “had to fix Covid first.”

Trump also said he wouldn’t limit the access to abortion medication even as he took credit for the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and said abortion was now a state issue.

Asked if he’s committed to not restricting the availability of abortion pills while in office, he said “well, I commit” before citing Biden’s change of heart on pardoning his son, Hunter. Biden vowed repeatedly that he would not pardon him before doing so last week.

“So things do change,” Trump said. “But I don’t think it’s going to change at all.”

—With assistance from Alicia Diaz and Nancy Cook.

(Updates with Fed response in eighth paragraph, Trump comments on trade, NATO and US citizenship starting in eighth.)

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