The man just won’t leave.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced that he’s going to remain on the Federal Reserve Board until 2028 even as he by law surrenders his chairmanship. The announcement came even after Trump agreed to drop his unwise lawsuit against Powell for funding a $2 billion new Taj Mahal building down the street from the White House.

Powell, in our opinion, was one of Trump’s worst appointments as his record proves. Only once did he hit his inflation target range. February 2021 was the only month in his whole tenure that inflation printed in the range of 1.8% to 2.2%. He’s batting .011.

He almost rammed the economy into recession with inexcusably high rates in 2018 and then during Covid’s aftermath he let the inflation rate skyrocket to 9% – its highest level since the late 1970s. We’re all still paying high grocery prices because of that monetary blunder.

He’s used interest rate policy seemingly as a weapon to bludgeon his enemy Trump. He slammed Trump’s tariffs but refused to acknowledge the disinflationary effects of Trump’s tax cuts, energy policies and deregulation. He rarely, if ever, spoke out in opposition to the Biden post-Covid $4 trillion debt-financed spending spree.

He never learned the supply side truism that faster growth cures inflation, it doesn’t cause it.

But his announcement to stay on the board – the first chairman to do that in 50 years – can only be explained as pure political retaliation against Trump. It puts Kevin Warsh in an awkward position as he tries to drive the Fed back in the stable dollar direction. To stay and sit on the bench pouting is what sore losers do. CEO’s don’t stick around after they’ve been tossed out.

Powell’s actions remind us of the old saying: he has a lot of class, with a capital A.