'I guess I'm stuck with you': Trump grudgingly admits he can't fire the Fed chair for not goosing his economy

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journalreported that, after raging and storming at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in several meetings, President Donald Trump has finally acknowledged he doesn't have the power to dismiss the powerful central bank official.

"I guess I'm stuck with you," he reportedly said of Powell.

Trump has complained that Powell is tightening interest rates too much, a measure used to prevent inflation but which raises the cost of borrowing and generally has the effect of slowing spending and economic growth. He also wants the Fed to stop shrinking its asset portfolio.

It is widely considered taboo for presidents to micromanage or politically attack the Fed's activities.

The president has made a huge selling point of economic performance under his presidency — an unofficial GOP slogan going into the 2018 midterm elections was "Jobs, not Mobs." But as growth has slowed and the Republican tax bill has failed to produce any measurable benefit for working people, Trump has increasingly shifted his attention to the Fed as a scapegoat, and his new pick for the Fed Board of Governors, right-wing economic pundit Stephen Moore, is sharply at odds with Powell.

Ironically, Trump is the one who appointed Powell in the first place — allegedly because he thought his predecessor, Janet Yellen, was too short to be a central banker.