President Trump on Thursday argued he would be able to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell if he wanted to, ratcheting up his criticism of the leader of the central bank.

“Oh, he’ll leave. If I ask him to, he’ll be out of there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I don’t think he’s doing the job. He’s too late. Always too late. A little slow. And I’m not happy with him. I let him know it.” 

“If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump said, despite Powell’s repeated insistence that he cannot be fired and will not leave before the end of his term.

The president went on to accuse Powell, a fellow Republican, of “playing politics.”

Trump earlier Thursday bashed Powell in a social media post, bemoaning that the Fed chairman has been “too late” to cut interest rates. Trump said Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”

Powell’s term ends in 2026. He said last November he would not step down if Trump asked, and that it is “not permitted under the law” for the president to fire or demote him or any of the other Fed governors with leadership positions.

Trump’s comments set up the possibility of a standoff with the central bank, which could further rattle already anxious financial markets amid the president’s expanding trade war.

Markets slumped on Wednesday after Powell painted a stagflationary picture of risks facing the economy, warning of both lower growth and higher prices as a result of the Trump administration’s tariff policies.