Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. Federal Reserve is spiraling out of control and needs a full internal audit to curb the unchecked growth of its ever-expanding operations. Bessent made the comments during a CNBC interview on Monday and a Fox Business appearance on Tuesday.

“What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,” Bessent explained on Monday. The Treasury Secretary appeared in another interview on Tuesday and elaborated on his previous message. “Everything else that the Fed has done over the years has just grown and grown and grown, and this is what happens when you don’t have oversight,” he said.

The man at the center of it all is Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who has been accused of perjury, fiscal mismanagement, and incompetence by several members of the Trump administration, including the president himself.

Powell has opted to maintain the central bank’s target interest rate between 4.25% and 4.50% since December 2024, the last time the rate was cut. His reluctance to reduce the rate has infuriated U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants lower rates to ease the country’s estimated $1 trillion in interest payments on its $36.67 trillion national debt.

(Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been accused of incompetence, fiscal mismanagement, and even perjury by Trump officials)

“The USA is Rockin’, there is VERY LOW INFLATION, and we deserve to be at 1%, saving One Trillion Dollars a year on Interest Costs,” Trump wrote on Friday. “I can’t tell you how dumb Too Late is – So bad for our Country!” The nickname “Too Late,” coined by the president, refers to Powell’s unwillingness to cut rates.

But besides his position on interest rates, Powell is facing harsh criticism for renovating the Fed’s Washington, D.C. headquarters to the tune of $2.5 billion, which includes a $700 million budget overrun. The controversial renovation has resulted in accusations of fiscal misconduct. After defending the project during a testimony before Congress, Powell was subsequently accused of perjury by Florida House Republican Anna Luna for allegedly lying about key details of the renovation.

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis has also blasted the Fed chair for intentionally disenfranchising crypto companies by abusing the Fed’s influence over U.S. banking operations. Lummis alleges the Fed categorized crypto as a source of reputational risk for banks during a Biden-era government-wide effort called “Operation Choke Point 2.0” that sought to undermine crypto companies.

All of these developments seem to have led Bessent to conclude that Powell’s heart may be in the right place, but perhaps the ever-expanding scope of the Fed’s responsibilities has exceeded Powell’s ability to manage the central bank.

“I know Chair Powell. There’s nothing that tells me that he should step down right now. He’s been a good public servant,” Bessent explained. “I’m calling for an internal review…and I have confidence in Chair Powell that if he were to do this, we could right-size the non-monetary functions of the Fed.”

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