Maddow Blog-Trump says he was surprised that Jerome Powell, the Fed chair he appointed, was appointed

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Last edited Wed Jul 16, 2025, 04:46 PM - Edit history (1)

The president seemed to forget that he appointed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which was part of an unsettling pattern of cognitive missteps.

“You would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this,” Barack Obama warned voters last fall. “The point is we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.”

This came to mind watching Trump’s latest cognitive missteps. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-16T18:49:54.892Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-says-was-surprised-jerome-powell-fed-chair-appointed-was-appoint-rcna219162

Donald Trump has made no effort to hide his growing contempt for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, but as NBC News reported, the president made a new comment about his target that raised eyebrows:

Trump said he was ‘surprised’ that Powell had been nominated to be chair of the Federal Reserve. ‘I was surprised he was appointed,’ Trump said. ‘I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.’

The Republican did not appear to be kidding.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/post/3lu3tm6j3by2u

Link to tweet

.....I’m mindful of the fact that many observers — including those who’ve taken questions about Joe Biden’s mental acuity quite seriously — treat this line of inquiry as unfair. Trump’s mental health is fine, they argue, and his oddities can be chalked up to his weird personality and brazen dishonesty.

Perhaps. But if Trump’s cognitive state were deteriorating, what kind of signs would we look for? Maybe we’d look for instances in which he forgot about appointing powerful officials whom he appointed? Or shared the details of non-existent conversations? Or offered answers unrelated to the questions he’d been asked?

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1. Share this video of Trump's mental decline because the media won't.

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