GOP frontrunner Donald Trump hinted that if he were elected president, he would replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
“I think she’s done a serviceable job,” Trump stated in an interview with Fortune magazine. “I don’t want to comment on reappointment, but I would be more inclined to put other people in.”
President Obama nominated Yellen, who began the four-year term in 2014.
Trump said he supports efforts to shrink the Fed’s power and also said that raising interest rates would hurt the economy.
“The best thing we have going for us is that interest rates are so low,” Trump stated. “If rates are three percent or four percent or whatever, you start adding that kind of number to an already reasonably crippled economy in terms of what we produce, that number is a very scary number.”
Trump previously told the Washington Post he could clear the national debt “over a period of eight years,” but reportedly backed away from that during his interview with Fortune, saying he would tackle part of the debt.
“You could pay off a percentage of it, depending on how aggressive you want to be,” Trump said about the national debt. “I’d rather not be all that aggressive. I’d rather not have debt, but we’re stuck with it.”
According to Reuters, Fortune will publish the full transcript of Trump’s interview later in the week.