Trump has criticized Powell for months because the chair has kept the short-term interest rate the Fed controls at 4.3% this year, after cutting it three times last year. Powell says the Fed wants to see how the economy responds to Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports, which Powell says could push up inflation.

Whether Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is fired next week, forced to resign in six months or allowed to muddle through to the end of his term next May, the supposedly sacrosanct notion of Fed independence has already been shattered.