(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was right to recommend Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chairman despite President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of the central bank leader.
“I don’t feel like I picked the wrong person,” Mnuchin said Wednesday in an interview on CNBC. “But I respect the president’s views and his views of the economy, where he’s had tremendous insight.”
The Fed’s interest rate increases in 2018 outraged the president, who went so far as to discuss firing Powell with his advisers late in the year. He has said he will nominate two political loyalists to the Federal Reserve board, former Godfather’s Pizza Inc. Chief Executive Officer Herman Cain and Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore, a move that’s been perceived as Trump’s effort to influence monetary policy.
Mnuchin said Cain deserves to be confirmed to one of two open seats on the Fed board despite concerns about his background. Cain ended his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in 2011 after he was accused of sexual harassment while leading the National Restaurant Association and infidelity.
“I don’t know Cain very well but I have every reason to believe the president supports him and feels strongly, so yes I would think he should be confirmed,” Mnuchin said.
