(Washington) US President Donald Trump, who intends to weigh on monetary policy decisions, on the occasion of bringing a new person to the committee setting interest rates after the surprise resignation of a Fed governor on Friday.
Adriana Kugler “sent her resignation letter to President Trump and will return to teach Georgetown University this fall,” the United States Central Bank reported in a statement.
The mandate ofme Kugler, appointed in 2023 in this position on the initiative of President Joe Biden, would run until the end of January 2026. His resignation will be effective from August 8.
Neither the press release nor his mail to Donald Trump give the reasons for his early departure.
Solicited by AFP, the Fed did not wish to say more.
Earlier this week, Adriana Kugler was unable to participate in the meeting of the FED monetary policy (FOMC) or vote on interest rates.
A spokesperson for the central bank had reported that it was for a “personal reason”.
Friday, when he was leaving for a weekend in his Golf in New Jersey, President Donald Trump said he was “very happy” of this post vacation.
He then took advantage of it in the evening to call on his social social platform again to the resignation of the boss of the Fed, Jerome Powell, whom he nicknamed “Too late Powell”.
The Republican President has been asking him for several months to lower guiding rates, whose current levels penalize the American economy according to him.
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, ARCHIVES REUTERS
Fed governor Jerome Powell
He will now have the opportunity to bring in earlier than expected a new head within the FOMC, which will have a right to vote on twelve.
His candidate will have to see his appointment confirmed by the Senate, where his party is the majority.
“Take control”
The announcement comes at a complicated period for the Fed, whose President Jerome Powell is continuously put under pressure by Donald Trump.
The institution also begins to experience dissensions on the monetary policy to be carried out, while the economy is shaken by the protectionist offensive of the American executive.
The last monetary meeting of the Fed, which was therefore held in the absence of Mme Kugler, ended with a maintenance of rates at their current level as well as the rare dissension of two governors, Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller.
“I will always be proud of the important work that I have carried out as governor of the Federal Reserve,” writes Adriana Kugler in her letter to Donald Trump, transmitted to the press.
She concludes by thanking Jerome Powell “for her unwavering commitment to the Federal Reserve and the American people”.
Jerome Powell is supposed to chair the Fed until May 2026. He can in theory then remain there as a simple governor until January 2028.
But Donald Trump is trying to accelerate his departure, in the hope of placing a person with a person sharing his views.
On Friday, he called on the other Fed officials to “take control” if Jerome Powell “continues to refuse” to lower the rates, in a message on Truth Social.
Jerome Powell once again defended the independence of the institution this week, in the name of the “general interest” and to avoid political leaders “act on rates for electoral purposes for example”.
