Public Views of the Fed Chair Are Polarized as Trump Mulls His Firing

Public confidence in the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome H. Powell, is low. As President Trump muses anew that he might fire Mr. Powell, only 37 percent of Americans say they have confidence in the Fed chief to recommend the right policy for the economy, according to a recent Gallup survey.

Mr. Trump’s attacks on Mr. Powell are not new. But even though the Fed, like many institutions in America, has made a concerted effort to stay above politics, it is not immune to the country’s growing polarization.

In the early 2000s, both Republicans and Democrats had broadly positive attitudes about Alan Greenspan, the Fed chair at the time.

As Americans grew increasingly politicized across nearly every issue, their attitudes toward the Fed chair tended to closely match their views of the incumbent president. Democrats were particularly positive toward Ben Bernanke in the Obama years, for example, while Republicans had high confidence in Mr. Powell shortly after Mr. Trump appointed him during his first term.

But while people are aware of the position of Fed chair, and how their decisions have broad consequences for Americans at every income level, many people don’t know who Mr. Powell is. When Americans were asked in 2024 if they approved of Mr. Powell’s job performance, more than 40 percent of respondents did not offer an opinion, according to a survey from Ipsos, a public affairs firm.

Republicans turned deeply negative toward Mr. Powell during former President Joseph R. Biden’s time in office, when Democratic confidence in the Fed chair soared.

But Mr. Powell has been experiencing a rebound in support among Republicans as Mr. Trump weighs firing him before his term ends next year. Mr. Trump seemed to back off his threat to remove Mr. Powell in comments at the White House on Wednesday, a backtracking that may reassure business leaders and administration insiders who have warned against such a move.

“Playing around with the Fed can often have adverse consequences — the absolute opposite of what you might be hoping for,” Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, told reporters after his bank’s quarterly earnings release on Tuesday.

And while trust in Mr. Powell hovers below 40 percent, the same Gallup survey that produced that figure put confidence in Mr. Trump’s ability to handle the economy only slightly higher: Only about 44 percent of Americans have confidence in the president to do the right thing for the economy.