Federal Reserve Chair Powell Set to Open Last Policy Meeting
Powell will preside over the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) session running Tuesday through Wednesday — his final scheduled gathering before his chairmanship formally expires on May 15. Yet the transition remains anything but clean: a politically charged deadlock in the Senate over Trump's chosen successor, Kevin Warsh, could compel Powell to stay on in an interim capacity beyond that date.
Trump first elevated Powell to the chairmanship in 2018. Former President Joe Biden subsequently re-nominated him in 2022. At 73, the former investment banker holds a distinction unique in modern Fed history — he is the only chair in nearly four decades to lead the institution without a formal economics degree, having built his career instead across law and politics.
A Tenure Defined by Crisis and Confrontation
Powell's eight years at the helm of the world's most powerful central bank unfolded against a relentless succession of economic shocks. When he assumed the chairmanship in February 2018, US inflation stood at 2.3% and the benchmark policy rate ranged between 1.25% and 1.5% — a relatively stable foundation that would not last long.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the most dramatic monetary intervention of his tenure. As economic activity collapsed and unemployment surged to historic levels, the Fed slashed interest rates to near-zero in March 2020 and launched an aggressive asset-purchase programme, injecting trillions of dollars into financial markets. The central bank's balance sheet ballooned from $4.4 trillion at the start of 2018 to a peak of roughly $9 trillion by 2022 — a figure that has since contracted to approximately $6.7 trillion as of April 2026.
The cost of that stimulus, compounded by pandemic-era supply chain disruptions and the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war in February 2022, sent inflation spiralling to a 41-year high of 9% in mid-2022 — a stark reversal from the 0.2% recorded just two years earlier in May 2020. The Fed's response was equally dramatic: 11 consecutive rate hikes that drove the policy rate to a 22-year peak of 5.25–5.5%, a campaign widely credited with eventually bringing prices back under control.
As of March 2026, US inflation sits at 3.3%, the benchmark rate stands at 3.5–3.74%, and unemployment has edged up to 4.3% — pressured by the economic fallout from Trump's sweeping tariff agenda and the ongoing energy shock emanating from the conflict in the Middle East.
The Political War at Home
Powell's final stretch in office has been consumed by an unprecedented clash with the White House. His refusal to bow to Trump's repeated and public demands for aggressive pre-emptive rate cuts drew a torrent of personal attacks and triggered a wave of legal investigations initiated by the Trump administration — moves widely seen as an effort to undermine the Fed's institutional independence.
The resulting political paralysis has brought the Fed's leadership transition to a near-standstill. A bloc of Senate lawmakers — including members of Trump's own Republican party — have refused to schedule a confirmation vote for Warsh until the White House formally drops its investigations into the central bank.
In a partial concession, Attorney General Jeanine Pirro announced on April 24 that she had shuttered a Justice Department probe into cost overruns on Fed building renovations, transferring oversight of the matter to the inspector general. However, legislators remain reluctant to advance Warsh's confirmation while a separate, unresolved case targeting Fed Board Member Lisa Cook continues to hang over the institution.
Powell has stated publicly that he is prepared to serve as interim chair should Warsh fail to win Senate confirmation before May 15. He has also made clear that he will not voluntarily vacate his separate seat on the Fed's Board of Governors — which runs through January 2028 — until the outstanding investigations into his conduct are fully resolved, a direct act of defiance against Trump's threats to forcibly remove him.
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