President Trump said he has not decided whether to replace Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen when her term ends early next year.
“I like her, I respect her,” Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday.
The president did not rule out the possibility of renominating Yellen to another term. Yellen’s chairmanship began in 2014, after she was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
Trump’s comments Wednesday are a major reversal from his campaign, during which he accused Yellen of partisanship, stating that she was keeping interest rates artificially low to benefit Obama and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
On Wednesday, however, he said that he favors low interest rates, although he is concerned that the dollar is becoming too strong for U.S. manufacturers to remain competitive.
Trump has said before that, in his role as a private real estate investor, he appreciates low interest rates because they lower the cost of debt used to finance investments. On the campaign trail, however, he argued that the Fed’s low-rate policies had created an unsustainable bubble.
