President Donald Trump slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday morning for failing to heed calls to lower interest rates.
Powell held short-term interest rates steady on Wednesday at 4.25% to 4.50%, despite intense pressure from the White House to lower them, as Trump believes doing so will fuel the economy. The Fed’s decision marks the fifth time Powell has bucked the president on the matter this year, after the central bank previously declined to lower rates during its January, March, May, and June meetings.
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Hours after Powell announced the rates, Trump took to Truth Social with a message accusing the Fed chairman of being “TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL” to hold his position.
“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell has done it again!!!” the president continued. “He is costing our Country TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS… Put another way, ‘Too Late’ is a TOTAL LOSER, and our Country is paying the price!”
The president’s rhetoric could signal he is again seriously considering an attempt to fire the Fed chief. Trump has publicly speculated about doing so but has backed away from carrying it out in recent days, particularly after the two men had a relatively cordial, though at times tense, encounter during a renovation tour of Fed buildings last week.
Trump has been critical of the renovation, which seeks to restore several of the Fed’s historic buildings, due to its high price tag. But he appeared to reverse his opposition to the project during the on-site tour alongside Powell.
“It was a Great Honor to tour the Renovation (and some new Construction!) of the Federal Reserve Building with Chairman Jerome Powell,” the president said last Thursday. “It’s got a long way to go, would have been much better if it were never started, but it is what it is and, hopefully, it will be finished ASAP. The cost overruns are substantial but, on the positive side, our Country is doing very well and can afford just about anything — Even the cost of this building!”
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However, after Powell declined to lower interest rates following the Fed’s two-day meeting that concluded Wednesday, Trump seemed to change his tune on the project once again, calling it “one of the most incompetent, or corrupt, renovations of a building(s) in the history of construction.”
Trump claimed that the Fed’s renovation project would cost $3.1 billion, while Powell said it would cost $2.5 billion.