President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he will soon announce a nominee to fill a new vacancy on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

The opening on the Fed Board follows last week’s announcement that Governor Adriana Kugler will step down early—well before her term was set to expire in January—leaving a seat open on the panel that guides the nation's monetary policy.

The seven members that make up the Fed Board are called governors and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. 

The appointment comes as tensions between Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have intensified in recent months.

At the heart of the conflict is Powell’s reluctance to push interest rates lower – a stance he says is rooted in the Federal Reserve's cautious, data-dependent approach to managing inflation and economic growth.

Trump has repeatedly called for the Fed to lower the federal funds target rate, which he says could save the nation "hundreds of billions of dollars." 

A LOOK AT THE UNFOLDING BATTLE BETWEEN TRUMP AND POWELL OVER FED POLICY

Powell has kept the central bank’s key borrowing rate target within a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, adopting a cautious approach to gauge the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs.

Last month, following the Federal Open Market Committee's rate meeting, Powell announced that the Fed would leave the rate unchanged. The decision marked the fifth time this year the Fed has kept the interest rate steady.

Trump also said on Sunday evening that he would appoint a new chief statistician to replace the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner he recently dismissed.

Last week, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, claiming she falsified employment data in order to produce a disappointing jobs report.

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