Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R), former US president and Republican presidential candidate, during a campaign rally at the site of the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 2024. Join Donald Trump.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
tesla SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a billionaire backer of newly minted President Donald Trump, also supported the idea of allowing the president to intervene in Federal Reserve policy.
In response to a Thursday social media post by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) calling for the Fed to be placed under the president’s command, Musk on Friday announced the “100” used to communicate the agreement. Posted an emoji.
Sen. Lee punctuated his post with “#EndtheFed.”
Musk’s comments, while brief, reflect a broader pressure campaign against the Fed’s independence that could take shape under the incoming Trump administration.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday that he would not resign if asked by President Trump. This marked the return of a potentially contentious relationship between the Fed chair and the next president.
The Fed’s tradition of independence is intended to give the central bank the ability to make monetary policy decisions, such as raising or lowering interest rates, based solely on the future health of the U.S. economy.
But during his first term, President Trump did not hesitate to break with tradition and publicly disparage Powell and his policy decisions.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump also frequently entertained the idea that he would have a say in Fed policy if he won the White House again.
“I think the president should at least do that.” [a] “Say it out there,” President Trump said at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida in August. “In my case, I think I’ve made a lot of money and been very successful. I have better intuition in many cases than the people who would become the Federal Reserve Board or the Chairman.”
