How Jerome Powell Is Trump-Proofing the Fed

A few months ago, something very unusual happened at the Federal Reserve, though only seasoned central bank watchers likely sensed this particular disturbance in the force. At the December meeting on interest rates, the vote was split 9-3. Nine members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee (including Chair Jerome Powell) elected to lower the benchmark by a quarter percentage point, and two others dissented in favor of no reductions. President Donald Trump’s appointee, Stephen Miran, also dissented, because he thought economic conditions warranted a much bigger whack.

This kind of disagreement is rare at the central bank, which strives for unanimity in its policy decisions. It was the first time since 2019 that three officials on the Federal Open Markets Committee voted against a policy decision. The real news, however, was not so much the split vote itself but how Powell spoke about it. In a press conference after, rather than dismissing the dissent, he made a point of celebrating the committee’s robust debate, saying “the discussions we have are as good as any we’ve had in my 14 years at the Fed.”