Bill Pulte, who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, applauded chatter stating Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell would soon depart from his position.
“I’m encouraged by reports that Jerome Powell is considering resigning,” Pulte said in a Friday statement. “I think this will be the right decision for America, and the economy will boom.”
It is unclear what specific reports the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is referring to. Powell’s term is up in May 2026, and he has indicated he would not step down if President Trump asked him to do so.
Still, Pulte’s words come a week after he urged Congress to launch an investigation into the Fed Chair, accusing him of lying during his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in late June.
It also follows months of tension between Powell and the Trump administration over interest rates. The president has long criticized Powell and urged him to resign over his decision to keep rates steady.
“I hope Congress really works this very dumb, hardheaded person, over. We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come. THE BOARD SHOULD ACTIVATE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social late last month.
Powell has maintained that he is waiting to evaluate the impact of the president’s sprawling tariff agenda before introducing lower rates.
“What we’re waiting for, to reduce rates, is to understand what will happen with the tariff inflation. There’s a lot of uncertainty about that,” Powell said in June.
“Someone has to pay the tariffs … between the manufacturer, the exporter, the importer, the retailer, ultimately somebody putting it into a good of some kind — or just the consumer buying it,” the Fed chair added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller and Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, have all been floated as possible Powell replacements.
The administration has also expanded the heaping criticism to include Powell’s general leadership abilities in recent days. Earlier this week, the White House accused Powell of mismanaging the central bank budget, describing a planned renovation of its Washington headquarters as “ostentatious.”
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