Trump opens up about the 'big mistake' he made in first term: 'Sometimes you listen to people'

US President Donald Trump is usually as unapologetic as one can get in public, but in a recent interview, there was a flip in the script. Trump rued an administrative decision he made in his first term, which has evidently caused him a lot of distress in his second, in a rare moment of vulnerability, like never seen before. The President said that the appointment of Jerome Powell as the Fed Chair back in 2017 was a mistake and a bad decision, and clearly, one he seeks to rectify as soon as Powell's term comes to an end. But the thing is, Powell's exit is being delayed because the President is unwilling to drop the DOJ probe into Powell.

In 2017, President Trump had a great relationship with Powell on paper. He had the choice between him and Kevin Warsh, and he chose the former. The President claimed that his decision back then was influenced by other people, and that he was never sure about nominating Powell for the role. As per a MassLive report, Trump claimed to have come under the influence of his former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.

“I made a mistake,” Trump said. “Because I had somebody that was — my secretary of the Treasury [Steven Mnuchin] — wanted him so badly, so badly, and you know, I didn’t feel good about him, but sometimes you listen to people. And it was a mistake. It was really a big mistake.” The President also claimed that with Warsh as the Fed Chair, the economy could grow by a whopping 15%, or even more. Of course, there’s no evidence backing such a claim, as Warsh's reputation for being an inflationary hawk precedes him.

The announcement of Warsh replacing Powell as the Fed Chair came last month after several weeks of speculation. The spat between Powell and President Trump got uglier over the former's refusal to agree to rate cuts. Several politicians, including Republicans, had criticized the move, as they believe the President was interfering too much with the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve was always meant to be an independent functioning body, away from White House interference.

Trump claims that the Fed remains independent, but his actions to force it to cut rates suggest otherwise. “Well, I mean, in theory, it’s an independent body. But I think, you know, I’m a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost everybody,” the President said. “We’re way high, OK? We’re way high in interest. You can cut, cut, cut, and we do that anyway, and we did that. You know, we got rid of hundreds of thousands of federal workers. And those workers went out and got themselves jobs in the free enterprise system. And you know what? That’s called making America great again.”

Recently, Trump allegedly accused Powell of corruption with respect to the budget quoted for the renovation of the federal building. These claims have not been backed by any concrete proof, but they further indicate that the terms between Trump and Powell show no signs of improving, if not worsening.

He even said that the only reason Warsh got the job was that he was willing to cut interest rates, which Powell has not been doing of late. “I think he does, but I think he wants to anyway. I mean, if he came in and said, ‘I want to raise them ...’ If he said that, he wouldn’t have gotten the job,” he said of the next Fed Chair.

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