6 times Trump's long-running feud with Fed Chair Powell has spilled into public view

President Donald Trump stands behind Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

• Donald Trump has feuded publicly with the Fed and its leader Jerome Powell for years.
• The president has repeatedly criticized Powell and urged him to lower interest rates.
• Trump escalated the situation this past week, saying Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough."

Donald Trump's beef with the Federal Reserve and its leader Jerome Powell is no secret.

The president has long stirred up drama with the central bank, repeatedly urging the Fed to lower interest rates and often criticizing Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to do so at his whim.

It was a running theme of Trump's first term. Despite the period featuring ultra-loose interest rates, Trump still consistently pushed Powell to lower them even more, even suggesting they go into negative territory.

Now that we're in the Trump 2.0 era, the macro conditions are different, but the pressure on Powell is the same. Trump still wants lower rates, even if his tariffs are making that difficult.

The latest flare-up came this past week, when Trump said Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough." While Powell hasn't yet responded, Sen. Elizabeth Warren quickly came to his defense, saying the stock market will crash if Trump deposes the Fed chair.

The whole episode is just the latest installment in the long-running beef between two titans of US economic policy. Detailed below — in chronological order — are six instances where the spat spilled into public view:

April 2019: Trump suggests the Fed is holding back the stock market

President Donald Trump abruptly paused sweeping tariffs, causing the stock market to rally.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In 2019, during the second half of his first term, Trump suggested that the Fed hadn't done a proper job managing monetary policy. Stocks, which had been doing well that year, would be up leagues higher if the Fed had cut interest rates, Trump suggested in a post on X, then known as Twitter.

If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points, and GDP would have been well over 4% instead of 3%...with almost no inflation. Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2019

Trump viewed the stock market as an important gauge for the success of his presidency during his first term. Since returning to the White House this year, Trump's team has suggested that he's now focused on a different north star presidency: The 10-year US Treasury yield, which is indicative of long-term interest rates in the economy.

June 2019: Trump says he "made" Powell into who he is

Powell spent nearly a decade on Wall Street at the Carlyle Group prior to serving as Fed Chair.

Erin Hooley/AP

Later that year, Trump slammed Powell's performance as Fed Chair, and appeared to take credit for boosting Powell's reputation after nominating him for the role in 2017.

"Here's a guy — nobody ever heard of him before — and now I made him, and he wants to show how tough he is?" Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria."

"Okay. Let him show how tough he is," Trump added. "He's not doing a good job."

Trump's comments came a day after Powell said the Fed was independent from the White House and described the central bank as a "strictly nonpolitical agency" in a Q&A session with reporters.

Prior to Trump's nomination, Powell had been a member of the Fed's board of governors and was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington DC-based think-tank. He also spent nearly a decade on Wall Street at the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, and served in the Treasury Department during George H.W. Bush's presidency.

March 2020: Trump says he has the right to remove Powell

Trump reportedly asked his team in 2018 about potentially firing Powell as Fed Chair.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

When the pandemic hit the US, Trump said he believed he had the rights to strip Powell of his rank as central bank chief.

"I think I have the right to remove," he told reporters at the White House in a briefing on COVID-19. "I have the right to also take him and put him in a regular position and put somebody else in charge. And I haven't made any decisions on that," he added.

At that point, Trump had been flirting with the idea of removing Powell as Fed Chair for more than a year. In December 2018, Trump spoke with his team about potentially firing Powell. In February 2019, he also asked White House lawyers to look into options to remove Powell as central bank chief, Bloomberg reported.

October 2024: Trump says the Fed's policy decisions are like flipping a coin

Trump said the Fed Chair position was one of the best roles in government.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trump appeared to poke fun at the Fed Chair's duties when speaking to the Economic Club of Chicago in October of last year on the campaign trail.

"I think it's the greatest job in government," Trump said when asked if he would consider removing Powell. "You show up to the office once a month, and you say, 'Let's see. Flip a coin.' And everybody talks about you like you're a god," Trump said.

December 2024: Trump says Powell will step down if he tells him to

Trump said he had no plans to replace Powell in December.

: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images

After winning the presidential election, Trump said in an interview that Powell would likely leave his post as Fed Chair if he were ordered to. Still, he didn't have any plans to fire Powell, he said, speaking to Kristen Welker at NBC News on December 8.

"No, I don't think so. I don't see it," Trump said when asked if he would replace Powell. "But, I don't — I think if I told him to, he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn't. But if I told him to, he would," he added.

April 2025: Trump says Powell's termination "cannot come fast enough"

Trump criticized the Fed for being "too late" in its approach to monetary policy.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Powell leaving the Fed couldn't come soon enough. It was unclear if he was referring to Powell finishing his third term in May 2026, or if Trump was considering removing Powell as Fed Chair before the end of his term.

Trump's TruthSocial post from Thursday, April 17.

Truth Social

Powell, for his part, has said he believes Trump can't remove him from the Fed. When asked by reporters last year, Powell said he wouldn't resign as Fed Chair if Trump asked him to. Later, when asked if Trump had the power to remove or demote him, Powell said such a move was "not permitted under the law."

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Check out the exclusive 11-slide pitch deck startup Doctronic used to raise $5 million for its AI agents to replace 'Dr. Google'

Doctronic cofounders Adam Oskowitz and Matt Pavelle.

Doctronic

• Doctronic just raised $5 million from Union Square Ventures for its healthcare AI agents.
• The startup's AI gives personalized advice on users' health questions and access to virtual doctors.
• It's competing in a hot space against startups like Roon and tech giants like OpenAI.

Doctronic is Matt Pavelle's twelfth startup. He's launched and led companies for renters' rewards, wine shopping, and luxury fashion. About two-thirds of them have been direct-to-consumer, while the rest have contracted with businesses to reach consumers.

Doctronic brings Pavelle's longtime consumer focus to a new domain: healthcare AI. And Doctronic has raised $5 million in seed funding, led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Tusk Ventures and startup accelerator HF0.

Google, and now AI models like ChatGPT, receive hundreds of millions, if not billions, of health-related questions from their users every day. Doctronic wants to use AI to improve that system by connecting patients with AI agents that can provide them with fast, anonymous, and personalized healthcare advice and connect them with a doctor when necessary.

Pavelle built Doctronic after seeing numerous friends and family members struggle to get timely and actionable responses from their healthcare providers about their own symptoms.

"If people who have some of the best health insurance possible in the country are having this much difficulty getting answers from their doctors, what happens to everybody else?" he said.

He and cofounder Adam Oskowitz launched New York-based Doctronic in September 2023 as a free service. Doctronic users share their age and sex, input their symptoms, and get four likely explanations and a plan of action, including a standardized note to share with their provider.

As of December, if those users want immediate care, they can book a video visit with a licensed medical professional through Doctronic. Patients can request a visit 24/7 in all 50 states and be connected with a provider, usually within 30 minutes, starting at $39.

Behind the scenes, the system is more than just an AI chatbot. It's a multi-agent framework: different AI "specialists" handle different areas of medicine, debate their findings, and pass their work to a human clinician for validation. The platform is LLM-agnostic — depending on the question, it might route to OpenAI, Anthropic, or multiple models at once and take the consensus.

"We're trying to build a seamless way for someone to come in and ask questions, or look for help navigating the medical system, and for us to figure out what they need and pass them to the right experts," Pavelle said.

Doctronic is competing with other healthcare startups like Roon, a Sequoia-backed company that raised $15 million in November to create a database of videos on health conditions, and tech giants like OpenAI, which has spawned numerous intelligence models used by doctors and patients alike, whether or not they're designed specifically for medical information.

Pavelle said Doctronic may eventually consider partnerships with gig economy marketplaces or employers to bring more users to its platform, but for now, Doctronic is staying firmly consumer-first. That's where most of the demand is coming from anyway — Pavelle said Doctronic gets most of its users from organic search, including from patients looking up their health questions on Google and finding Doctronic's site that way. The startup has also created some specialized landing pages, including for women's health and COVID-19.

"We see around 50,000 people a week — we've built something people really like, with lots of repeat users," Pavelle said. "We just want to keep improving to streamline the health system."

Here's the 11-slide pitch deck Doctronic used to raise its $5 million seed round led by Union Square Ventures.

Doctronic

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TGI Fridays' CEO shares 4 ways he's prepping the company for a comeback after its bankruptcy filing

TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette revealed what he's focusing on after the chain's bankruptcy filing.

Brett Hondow/Shutterstock

• TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette shared four things he's focusing on after its bankruptcy filing.
• He told BI he hopes to improve sales and menu innovation and refocus TGI Fridays' brand.
• Blanchette also highlighted Gen Z and millennials with young families as key focus groups.

Two years after stepping down as CEO, Ray Blanchette has returned to the top job at TGI Fridays, focused on revitalizing the brand and driving its growth.

Blanchette spoke to Business Insider about how he hopes to get TGI Fridays back on track following its recent bankruptcy filing.

The casual dining chain has faced major challenges in the last few years.

Originally opened in the 1960s as a singles bar in New York City, TGI Fridays grew to become an international chain famous for its burgers and pub-grub appetizers.

However, throughout the 2010s, TGI Fridays closed more than 200 restaurants in the US. Its plans to take the company public in 2020 also coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, halting those plans indefinitely.

Ultimately, last November, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its capital structure as key factors in the filing.

There have also been a series of leadership changes. After five years as CEO, Blanchette stepped down in May 2023. He was replaced by Brandon Coleman III, who was only in the position for a few months, and then by Weldon Spangler, who took over the position in October 2023, Nation's Restaurant News reported.

Blanchette returned as CEO in January after working as a full-time franchisee within the chain, which he said helped him feel more connected to the brand and its franchisee base.

Blanchette said he wants to leave the bankruptcy filing in the rearview mirror and refocus on the brand's strengths, starting with a menu revamp coming May 13.

Here are four ways he hopes to lead the chain's comeback.

Sales are the chain's top priority after TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy last year.

TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette took over the position in January.

TGI Fridays

Blanchette told Business Insider in a video interview that before he gets out of bed in the morning, he's thinking about the company's sales. Driving top-line sales is his "No. 1 priority" for the chain's comeback.

"We've seen some great progress in the restaurants that I own, and we are fortunate to have seen a meaningful turnaround in same-store sales this year," he said.

"We think that as we're learning, we can build off of that and continue to grow sales in a powerful way," he continued.

Growing sales is no easy task, but Blanchette said he's been encouraged by growth in the casual dining industry with chains like Chili's, which saw a significant 31.4% increase in same-store sales at the start of the year.

"I think what happened at Chili's is encouraging for everyone in casual dining, and what they're continuing to see is inspiring to us," Blanchette said.

Blanchette wants to reengage employees and refocus on the "celebration" aspect of TGI Fridays' brand.

TGI Fridays is refocusing on celebration after the bankruptcy filing.

Erin McDowell/Business Insider

Blanchette said that the company's bankruptcy filing in November 2024 was an "enormous distraction," compounded by a simultaneous change in management.

However, he wants customers and franchisees to focus less on the bankruptcy filing and more on the fun, playful side of TGI Fridays' brand.

"Celebration is kind of at the heart of everything we do. And so we're trying to reengage our team members by giving them food that they're prouder to serve," he told BI. "We're stopping the conversations and the distractions around the bankruptcy and getting focused on remembering that the jobs that we create around the globe change people's lives."

Blanchette cited the chain's growing international business, including 391 restaurants in 41 countries.

"We want to lean into that and continue to grow and not forget to celebrate along the way," he said.

Blanchette is revamping the menu, with a new food and cocktail menu coming May 13.

The menu will be revamped starting on May 13.

Erin McDowell/Business Insider

When it comes to resonating with younger generations, Blanchette said that menu innovation — from adding new items to improving the quality of items already on the menu — is one of the chain's top priorities.

He also said that innovation can pose a unique challenge, as it "increases complexity in a lot of cases."

"I've spent my time trying to rally the organization around getting excited about these new products," he said, naming the chain's recent steakhouse menu, which features hand-cut steaks and is available at select franchise locations.

Blanchette said the idea really resonated with franchisees, and the chain is now seeing interest from its international franchisee partners.

"Creating a pull rather than a push on these new ideas has been a big priority," he said.

Blanchette said he wants to tap into generations like Gen Z and millennials with young families.

TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette said millennials and Gen Z are key groups for the chain to target.

Saknarong Butsabong/Shutterstock

Blanchette said menu innovation is one way he thinks TGI Fridays could win over customers in younger generations, such as Gen Z.

"This is a generation with a very high food IQ, and I think they tend to be more food curious," he said, citing a trend toward spicy food and more "fusion" flavors with international influences. "They'll try spices from abroad even if they don't know exactly what the flavor is until they try it. And so we think innovation is especially important for this younger generation."

Blanchette added that the chain is also focusing on millennials, especially those with young kids, since their tastes in restaurants tend to change once they become parents.

"I think Fridays, because the environment's a little louder, can compete much harder for those young families because you don't have to give up your entire sense of self," he said. "You can still have a handcrafted cocktail, you can still have handmade interesting food when you go out."

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3 teens invented a salt-powered refrigerator that doesn't need electricity. They're building 200 of them for hospitals to use.

Dhruv Chaudhary, Mithran Ladhania, and Mridul Jain worked together to build a salt-powered refrigerator.

Dhruv Chaudhary/Mithran Ladhania/Mridul Jain

• Three teens built a salt-powered fridge to help bring vaccines and medical supplies to rural areas.
• The invention uses salts that pull heat from their environments when they dissolve in water.
• They won the 2025 Earth Prize of $12,500 and plan to test 200 units in 120 hospitals.

Three teenagers designed a mini refrigerator that cools itself with salt and doesn't require an outlet. They're bringing it to hospitals to help transport medical supplies to rural areas without electricity.

Dhruv Chaudhary, Mithran Ladhania, and Mridul Jain live in Indore, India and all have parents working in medical fields. The boys decided to find a salty refrigeration technique after hearing how challenging it was to bring COVID-19 vaccines to rural areas without electricity.

Their invention, which they call Thermavault, won them the 2025 Earth Prize on Saturday. The award comes with $12,500, which they plan to use to build 200 of their refrigerators and send them to 120 hospitals for testing.

They hope their refrigerator can help transport vaccines, other medicines and supplies, and even transplant organs.

"We have been able to keep the vaccines inside the Thermavault for almost 10 to 12 hours," Dr. Pritesh Vyas, an orthopedic surgeon who tested the device at V One hospital in Indore, says in a video on the Thermavault website.

With some improvements like a built-in temperature monitor, he added, "it will be definitely helpful, definitely useful in the remote places, the villages."

Finding the right cooling salt

Some salts can have a cooling effect when they're dissolved in water.

That's because when those salts dissolve, the charged atoms, or ions, that make them up break apart. That separation requires energy, which the ions pull from the environment, thus cooling the water around them.

Chaudhary, Ladhania, and Jain searched the internet, first compiling a list of about 150 salts that might work, then narrowing it down to about 20 that seemed most efficient.

They then borrowed a lab at the Indian Institutes of Technology to test those 20, or so. To their disappointment, none of the salts cooled the water enough.

They were back to square one. Turns out, they didn't need the internet after all — their school teacher recommended trying two different salts: barium hydroxide octahydrate and ammonium chloride.

"While we did scour through the entire internet to find the best salt possible, we kind of just ended up back to our ninth-grade science textbook," Chaudhary said.

The trio says they found that ammonium chloride maintained temperatures of around 2 to 6 degrees Celsius (about 35 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit), which is ideal for many vaccines. Adding barium hydroxide octahydrate to the mix produced sub-zero Celsius temperatures, which is ideal for some other vaccines and sometimes for transplant organs.

Now they had two different refrigeration options.

About three months later, they'd built a prototype and were testing it in local hospitals.

Meet the Thermavault salt refrigerator

A mock-up of a Thermavault prototype.

Dhruv Chaudhary/Mithran Ladhania/Mridul Jain

The fridge itself is an insulated plastic container with a copper wall lining the inside, where the vaccines or organs would sit. The cooling solution, made by dissolving the salts in water, is poured into a space between the plastic outer wall and the copper inner wall.

Cold boxes and coolant packs are already in widespread use for bringing vaccines to rural areas without electricity. Those carriers typically rely on simple ice packs.

One advantage of the ammonium chloride solution, the trio of teens says, is it's reusable in the field without electricity. You don't need a freezer to pull ice from. Rather, you can remove the salt water from the box, boil away the water, and collect the salt in its solid form, ready to dissolve in new water and produce its cooling effect all over again.

Jain said they're planning to use the prize money to pursue a Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS) certification through the World Health Organization so they can pitch it to Gavi — an international alliance that distributes vaccines.

The Earth Prize program also has a volunteer who can help them pursue a patent, according to a spokesperson.

The Earth Prize casts across the planet for teens who are working on environmental projects and awards one winner from each world region. Chaudhary, Ladhania, and Jain won the prize for Asia. A global winner will be chosen by public vote, which closes on April 22.

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A Boston-based construction firm is leveraging AI to keep roughly 30,000 workers safe

 

Getty Images; Karan Singh for BI

• Worker and job-site safety are key factors that construction management firms must consider daily.
• The Boston-based firm Shawmut does this with AI-powered software connected to workers' phones.
• This article is part of "AI in Action," a series exploring how companies are implementing AI innovations.

As a $2 billion construction management firm overseeing more than 150 active worksites on any given day, Shawmut Design and Construction is responsible for keeping roughly 30,000 employees, contractors, and subcontractors safe.

The Boston-based firm has employed AI for about eight years, using it for data collection, risk evaluation, worker safety compliance, and more.

Shaun Carvalho, the company's chief safety officer, said this strategy had become invaluable for creating a safer operation overall while still prioritizing growth and efficiency.

"You're talking about a business that, quite literally, 20 or 30 years ago was driven by paper and clipboards," Carvalho told Business Insider. "Anything we can do to leverage technology, we'll do it."

Using data and AI to promote safety at construction sites

Shawmut uses artificial intelligence to predict safety-related incidents on its construction sites.

With the help of an AI tool created by a private vendor, Shawmut can pull various data points to help score the likelihood of something going awry.

Some of this data is from the National Weather Service — information about forecast temperatures, prospective weather events, and the associated fallout, such as freezing pipes. Other data is about personnel: If there's an influx of new people to a job site, but not an influx of new leaders, the AI system will flag it as potential for disaster.

"Not having enough leaders means we probably aren't getting enough eyeballs on the workers who are out there now," Carvalho said. "When your job is to keep everyone safe, eyeballs are a very good thing."

This data dump isn't in real time, at least not yet. The drops come at least once a day, empowering leaders to speak with teams and make appropriate tweaks, Carvalho said.

Pairing GPS data with AI capabilities

Shawmut has been using AI since 2017, Carvalho said. The program really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company devised innovative ways to leverage the technology to ensure worker safety.

The firm's chief people and administration officer, Marianne Monte, told BI that the company used GPS tracking software on workers' phones to monitor their location on job sites. An AI engine automatically sent alerts when workers got closer than 6 feet apart.

Gradually, the company has expanded this use case to track whether workers are tied off on buildings (so they don't fall) and whether workers are using scaffolding properly.

"These tools feel very benign to me, and they are making our job sites safer," Monte told SAP. "It's much less about the height of that ladder than it is about a person's mental state when they get on it."

Privacy rights are a key consideration in the age of AI

While AI can help construction businesses like Shawmut keep sites safe, some experts have raised ethical questions about using AI in this fashion.

Benjamin Lange, who studies the intersection of technology and ethics, said leveraging AI to essentially monitor people raises concerns about privacy, informed consent, and data security, which must be carefully managed to prevent misuse or overreach.

"Companies must be transparent about data collection practices, ensure that tracking is strictly limited to safety purposes, and provide workers with opt-in mechanisms to maintain trust and protect individual autonomy and workers' privacy rights," said Lange, a research assistant professor in the ethics of AI at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a researcher leader at the Munich Center for Machine Learning.

After hearing this feedback, Shawmut representatives decided to anonymize data from the jump.

What's next for AI in construction

AI in construction faces several challenges, including data reliability and lack of human oversight.

"There are also concerns about overreliance on automation, which may reduce human oversight and accountability in critical decision-making," Lange said.

AI systems rely on high-quality, accurate data, and any errors or biases in datasets can lead to costly mistakes or unsafe conditions, Carvalho said. Additionally, construction sites may vary widely in complexity, making it difficult for AI models trained on past projects to generalize effectively, he added.

Recent industry research indicates that bad data in the construction industry is a big hurdle for companies attempting to embrace AI. A recent report by Autodesk and FMI Consulting indicated that poor data — information that is "incomplete, inaccurate, inconsistent, or outdated," according to the report — costs the industry $1.8 trillion annually. That same report said that 95% of all construction data goes unused.

Still, Shawmut is planning to extend and amplify its AI programs over the next three to five months, Carvalho said.

One push: real-time response. Carvalho imagines a future where every Shawmut employee wears a badge linked to a digital map of a job site. In this world, the AI system would alert managers in real time the moment an employee stepped out near something dangerous.

"What we want isn't actually in the marketplace yet," Carvalho said.

He added that he'd like to see AI technology that accounts for the various rules and regulations that differ by state. If, for instance, a contractor is on a Shawmut job in California and then heads to a job in Utah, this dream system would automatically update the job site policies to reflect the rules and regulations in the new municipality.

A system like this one would also have the potential to contribute to job safety.

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21 vintage photos show how desperate and desolate America looked during the Great Depression

Thousands of unemployed people waited in lines for food during the Great Depression.

AP Photo

• The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in US history when unemployment reached 25%.
• When the pandemic hit in 2020, Americans hadn't felt that level of economic tragedy in a century.
• These photos reveal what life looked like in the bleak 1930s after the stock market crashed.

During the Great Depression, the most tragic economic collapse in US history, more than 15 million Americans were left jobless and desperate for an income.

By 1932, nearly one in four Americans was out of a job, and by 1933, unemployment levels reached an estimated 25%.

For comparison, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% in April 2020.

President Donald Trump's tariff announcements have prompted concerns about another possible period of economic uncertainty already marked by rising prices and a volatile stock market.

These photos reveal how desolate the country looked during the Great Depression, when food and job lines stretched for blocks.

The Great Depression was the worst economic tragedy in American history.

A soup kitchen during the Great Depression in 1930.

Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images

The crisis resulted in skyrocketing rates of unemployment, hunger, and desperation.

Following a period of booming prosperity in the 1920s, the Great Depression began when the US stock market crashed in 1929.

The New York Stock Exchange in New York on "Black Thursday."

AP

Known as Black Thursday, the 1929 crash was attributed in part to a vast imbalance of wealth between the rich and poor, a fervent production of goods, little to no wage gains, an increase in personal debt, and government mismanagement.

Over the course of the decade, more than 15 million Americans lost their jobs.

An unemployed man seeking work during the Great Depression.

AP

The effects of the Great Depression could be felt into the early 1940s.

The unemployment rate jumped at a shocking speed.

Unemployed people outside the State Labor Bureau building in 1933.

AP

From 1929 to 1930, unemployment rose from fewer than 3 million to 4 million, according to figures cited by the University of Houston's Digital History archive. In 1931, it doubled to 8 million, and by 1932, unemployment levels reached a staggering 12.5 million.

By 1932, one out of every four US workers was unemployed.

Vagrants during the Great Depression.

Getty Images

Thousands of Americans lost their homes, and hundreds of thousands attempted to travel through the country on foot or by boxcar to find work, according to the Library of Congress.

Those who were fortunate enough to remain working often suffered large pay cuts and decreased hours.

Hunger and labor marchers during the Great Depression.

AP

By 1932, 75% of all remaining workers were on a part-time schedule, according to the University of Houston's Digital History archive.

Families who were unable to pay rent were frequently evicted from their homes.

Evicted sharecroppers during the Great Depression.

Arthur Rothstein/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

People without homes looking for work on public trains were kicked to the curb.

The struggle for money became so desperate that families across the country often lived in crowded shacks.

A shantytown in the 1930s.

American Stock/Getty Images

Some families inhabited caves or sewer pipes out of desperation.

During the winters of 1932 and 1933, an estimated 1.2 million Americans were homeless.

A war veteran on the sidewalk during the Great Depression.

AP

The population of the US at that time was about 125 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

In an effort to save money, families planted their own gardens, canned foods, bought old bread, sought out soup kitchens, and stopped buying common items like milk.

The Salvation Army Soup Kitchen.

Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Many also sacrificed medical and dental care because they couldn't afford it.

Food banks became commonplace.

A line of unemployed and homeless men during the Great Depression.

AP

Lines for food ration programs and free meals exploded across the country.

At the beginning of the Depression, President Herbert Hoover largely dismissed the stock market crash as a "passing incident in our national lives."

President Herbert Hoover at a press conference in 1932.

AP

Hoover did not believe in offering federal aid to the impoverished or using the power of the federal government to manage prices or currency, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Americans grew angry, and Hoover became widely blamed for the economic turmoil.

A Hooverville in Seattle.

Getty Images

Impoverished people living in shantytowns across the country started referring to them as "Hoovervilles," and empty pockets turned inside out were known as "Hoover flags."

Desperate Americans threatened with hunger and starvation began organizing marches and labor riots.

A "hunger march" in Los Angeles.

AP

In 1932, 20,000 veterans of World War I marched to the Capitol to demand the payment of bonuses that they were scheduled to receive in 1945, according to the Library of Congress. The bill to do so did not pass in Congress.

The following year, 10,000 unemployed people joined a "hunger march" in Los Angeles.

The Depression also had a negative impact on family life as many couples delayed their marriages or postponed having children.

A mother of seven children during the Great Depression.

Library of Congress

Throughout the decade, separation rates grew. By 1940, there were 1.5 million American women living apart from their husbands, according to the University of Houston's Digital History archive.

Children were adversely affected, as well.

Children at a demonstration during the Great Depression.

Minnesota Historical Society/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

An estimated 200,000 vagrant children wandered the streets of America due to the break-up and collapse of their families, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Social Welfare History Project.

Black and Mexican communities experienced higher rates of unemployment and discrimination during the Depression.

An African-American family during the Great Depression.

MPI/Getty Images

Half of Black workers were unemployed by 1932 compared to the general unemployment rate of 25%, according to the Library of Congress. In Southern states, the percentage of unemployed Black workers was even higher.

Over the course of the Depression, authorities deported an estimated 400,000 Mexican Americans over fears of workplace competition, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Many of those people were American citizens.

The Depression had a significant impact on the psychology of unemployed men.

Skid Row in New York City during the Great Depression.

B. Newman/Three Lions/Getty Images

As men struggled to provide for their families as cultural breadwinners, some turned to alcohol to cope, while others became abusive or gave up hope altogether.

Suicide rates increased during the Great Depression.

A common sleeping area during the Great Depression.

Paul Briol/Cincinnati Museum Center/Getty Images

Suicide rates peaked when unemployment reached high points in 1932 and 1938, according to the US National Library of Medicine.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1933 and shepherded the New Deal through Congress.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Library of Congress

The set of emergency relief programs, work programs, and large-scale government reforms implemented by Roosevelt helped boost the economy. America's entrance into World War II in 1941 jumpstarted American manufacturing.

The Great Depression had lasting effects on the US.

Times Square during the Great Depression.

AP Photo

Its aftermath fundamentally changed the relationship between Americans and their government and led to the development of more government programs, responsibility, and involvement.

This story was originally published in May 2020. It was updated in July 2024 and April 2025.

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