President Donald Trump has recently expressed criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. In a comment that drew attention, Trump stated he was “surprised” that Powell had been nominated to lead the central bank. “I was surprised he was appointed,” Trump said. “I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.”
Trump’s remark stood out given that he himself nominated Powell to the role in 2017. President Joe Biden later reappointed Powell in 2021, with the nomination receiving broad bipartisan support in the Senate.
The comment followed a separate story Trump shared about his uncle, John Trump, who was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Trump claimed that his uncle had discussed having taught Ted Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber." However, there is no record of Kaczynski attending MIT, and John Trump passed away in 1985—over a decade before Kaczynski was identified and arrested in 1996.
Earlier that day, Trump also commented on cognitive testing, comparing it to IQ tests. Cognitive assessments are typically used to evaluate for conditions like dementia and other forms of cognitive decline.
Two weeks prior, Trump held a press conference at a detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” When asked by a reporter whether there was a timeline for how long detainees would remain at the facility, Trump responded by talking about his connection to Florida. “This is my home state,” he said. “I love it. I feel very comfortable in the state — I’ll spend a lot of time here.”
His response did not directly address the question.
