Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell launched a thinly veiled rebuke to President Donald Trump on Sunday as he called on students in a speech at a Princeton University pre-graduation baccalaureate ceremony to save democracy.
Powell implored the students to see the value in public service, and to do “whatever it takes” to defend democracy as they pursue their careers.
“As you navigate the world of bright possibilities that awaits you, I urge you to take on the challenge and the opportunity to serve your fellow citizens,” Powell said. “Fifty years from now, you will want to be able to look in the mirror and know that you did what you thought was right, in every part of your life.”
He reminded the students that “at the end of the day, your integrity is all you have,” and that they should “guard it carefully.”
Powell spoke just days after the U.S. Supreme Court signaled its protection of officials of the nation’s central bank from Donald Trump, even though the president has often threatened to fire Powell because the Federal Reserve chairman has not lowered interest rates as Trump has pressed him to do.
The court last Thursday let stand the recent firings of other federal agency heads by the Trump administration, pending legal arguments. But the central bank, the top court added, “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in [a] distinct historical tradition.”
Powell’s speech also heaped praise on the nation’s universities at a time when the Trump administration is slashing funding to Harvard University for refusing to acquiesce to his policy goals and ideological positions.
Powell called U.S. universities the “envy of the world and a crucial national asset,” and warned that higher learning institutions were under threat, though he never mentioned Trump’s name.
He charged the almost-graduates with using their careers to “preserve and strengthen” the nation’s democracy.
“When you look back … you will want to know that you have done whatever it takes to preserve and strengthen our democracy, and bring us ever closer to the Founders’ timeless ideals,” he said.
Powell graduated from Princeton in 1975 with a degree in political science, which he joked to the students was the “wrong degree” considering where he ended up.
“I had brushed off my parents’ one academic suggestion, which was to major in economics, which struck me as boring and useless,” Powell said. “After 13 years at the Fed, I admit I was wrong about that!”
Trump has personally attacked Powell on several occasions after the Federal Reserve chair refused to lower interest rates at a pace the president deems appropriate. The president has called him a “fool” and a “major loser,” and has both threatened to fire him while also walking back his threats, insisting he never considered firing Powell. Trump said earlier this month that talking to Powell is like talking to “a wall.”
The Federal Reserve chair has mostly stayed quiet in the face of Trump’s threats, though he has noted he would not step down if Trump asked because it’s “not permitted under the law” for the president to fire him.
Trump has accused the Fed of refusing to cut rates as a way to make his economy look troubled and help the Democrats. But Fed officials have insisted they’re keeping rates on hold due to uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs. Powell has predicted that the president’s tariffs will spike inflation and slow the economy.
Princeton University’s graduation ceremony is Tuesday May 27.
