US conservatives spread fake Fed chair resignation letter online
- Published on July 24, 2025 at 17:26
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, effective at the close of business today, July 22, 2025," reads the missive attributed to Powell and addressed to "the President."
The apparent resignation letter rocketed across X and other social media platforms amid intensified criticism from Trump, who has pushed the independent central bank chief to lower interest rates and ramped up attacks over the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project.
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson and US Senator Mike Lee were among those who promoted it, screenshots captured by journalists show.
But the letter is not real; no such communication appeared on the Federal Reserve's website as of July 24 (archived here).
Johnson later deleted his post, acknowledging the letter was fake in a subsequent message apologizing to his followers.
Lee also removed his post and told the Hill, a US politics outlet, that he had not verified the document before disseminating it (archived here).
"I don't know whether it's legit or not," said the senator, who has previously amplified false claims about Ukraine, immigration and the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
In 2024, Lee promoted a hoax death announcement for Jimmy Carter months before the late president actually died.
The letter shared on social media contains clear signs of manipulation, with its typesetting, format and signature differing from the Fed chair's standard correspondence.
In authentic writings publicly available on the Federal Reserve's website, the seal is centered at the top of each document, the date is centered above the text and Powell's signature is centered at the bottom (archived here, here and here).
The fake image shared on social media -- seen in the screenshot below -- shows Powell's signature indented right and written with different penmanship.
The hoax letter also displays a blurry seal in the bottom left of the page that contains nonsensical characters -- a hallmark of content generated by artificial intelligence (archived here).
Its characteristics do not match the authentic Federal Reserve emblem, as seen in an example document below (archived here).
Trump, who appointed Powell to the role in 2017, has floated the idea of removing the chairman but also said he is unlikely to oust him before his term expires in May 2026.
On July 22, the day the fabricated document spread online, the president said from the White House: "I think he's done a bad job, but he's going to be out pretty soon anyway" (archived here).
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added in a July 22 interview with Fox Business: "There's nothing that tells me that he should step down right now."
Trump is slated to visit the Federal Reserve July 24. The Federal Reserve Board did not offer comment for this fact-check.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about US politics here.
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