(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday he will not try to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell upon taking office in January.

"No, I don't think so," Trump said in an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker." He told Welker when asked if he would seek to replace Powell, who he has sparred with in the past over interest rate levels, "I think if I told him to [go], he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn't."

Last month, Powell said he would refuse to leave office early if Trump tried to oust him, arguing that removing him, or any of the other Fed governors, ahead of the end of their terms is "not permitted under the law."

Trump named Powell as Fed chair in early 2018 to replace Janet Yellen, who later became President Joe Biden's Treasury Secretary. Biden reappointed Powell to his current term.

But the relationship between Trump and Powell turned sour, with Trump frequently attacking the Fed and its chief during his first term in office for the central bank's policy choices.

Trump's Fed attacks broke from decades of presidents steering clear of direct criticism of the central bank, which operates with legal independence subject to the oversight of Congress.