US President Donald Trump said he would love for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to resign but that it would disrupt the markets if the president were to remove him.
Mr Trump made the comments in an interview to the Real America's Voice network.
Earlier, the president said that he was not planning to fire Mr Powell, despite criticising the central bank chief for not lowering interest rates.
He declined to completely reject the possibility of firing him.
A report by Bloomberg report which said that the president is likely to fire Mr Powell soon sparked a drop in stocks and the dollar, and a rise in Treasury yields.
Mr Trump, who criticises Mr Powell regularly for being "too late" to cut interest rates, said the report was not true, but confirmed he had floated the idea with Republican politicians yesterday evening.
"I don't rule out anything, but I think it's highly unlikely unless he has to leave for fraud," Mr Trump said.
He was making a reference to a recent White House and Republican politician's criticism of cost overruns in the €2.1 billion renovation of the Federal Reserve's historic headquarters in Washington.
There has been no evidence of fraud, and the Fed has pushed back on criticism of its handling of the project.
Mr Trump said Mr Powell is a "terrible" chair for keeping the Fed's short-term policy rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range since December, while the central bank assesses the impact of sharply higher tariffs on inflation.
Mr Trump blames the Fed for higher long-term rates that increase the cost of US government borrowing, and his attacks on Mr Powell have continued since his 4 July signing of the "Big Beautiful Bill" tax and spending bill that independent analysts say will add trillions of dollars to the US deficit.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who opposed that bill and has since said he will not run for reelection, delivered a spirited defence of an independent Fed, which economists say is the linchpin of US financial and price stability.
'Huge mistake'
"There's been some talk about potentially firing the Fed chair," said Mr Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees the Fed and confirms presidential nominations to its board.
"Subjecting the Fed to direct presidential control would be a huge mistake," he said.
"The consequences of firing a Fed Chair, just because political people don't agree with that economic decision, will be to undermine the credibility of the United States going forward and I would argue if it happens you are going to see a pretty immediate response, and we've got to avoid that."
Asked if it would be a problem for Mr Trump to fire Mr Powell, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters: "My understanding is he doesn't have any intention of doing that."
"President Trump's own analysis and that of his Treasury Secretary is that he cannot fire Jay Powell," House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill told CNBC earlier today.
Mr Powell, who was nominated by Mr Trump in late 2017 to lead the Fed and then nominated for a second term by Democratic President Joe Biden four years later, has repeatedly said he intends to serve out his term that goes to 15 May, 2026.
A recent Supreme Court opinion has solidified a long-standing interpretation of the law that the Fed chair cannot be fired over policy differences but only "for cause."
