On April 23, U.S. President Trump said this week that he had never had plans to fire Fed Chairman Powell and accused the media of spreading false remarks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

But inside the White House, some senior officials took Trump's recent publicly proposed idea of ​​firing Powell. White House lawyers privately reviewed legal options for attempting to remove Powell, according to people familiar with the matter.

The discussions came to an abrupt end earlier this week when Trump told his senior aide that he would not try to remove Powell. The people said Trump made the decision with the intervention of Treasury Secretary Becente and Commerce Secretary Lutnik, who warned Trump that the move could trigger far-reaching market chaos and a chaotic legal battle. One said Lutnik also told the president that the action to fire the Fed chairman would likely not lead to any actual changes in interest rates, as other members of the Fed committee would likely adopt a similar monetary policy to Powell.