On October 5, 2024, Tesla CEO Musk (right) and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participated in a campaign rally held at the site of the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Tesla SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, a billionaire supporter of newly elected President Donald Trump, supports the idea of allowing the president to intervene in Federal Reserve policy.
In response to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s social media post on Thursday calling on the Fed to accept the president’s guidance, Musk on Friday posted a “100” emoji expressing agreement.
Senator Lee captioned his post “#EndtheFed.”
Although brief, Musk’s comments were part of a broader pressure movement on the Fed’s independence that may take shape in the next Trump administration.
On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he would not resign if Trump asked him to. It marks a resurgence in what could become a contentious relationship between the Fed chairman and the president-elect.
The Fed’s tradition of independence is designed to give the central bank the ability to make monetary policy decisions, such as raising or lowering interest rates, entirely based on the future health of the U.S. economy.
But throughout his first term, Trump has not been shy about breaking with tradition and publicly disparaging Powell and his policy decisions.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump also frequently considered giving himself a say in Fed policy if he wanted to win the White House again.
“I think the president should at least have a say in it,” Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in August. “I think in my case, I make a lot of money, I’m very successful, and I think in a lot of situations I have better instincts than the people at the Fed or the chairman.”
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