President Donald Trump took another shot on the president of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
“Mortgage rates are actually slightly down, even if I have a guy in the Fed of which I am not a big fan.
Trump was addressed to business leaders, where he thanked them for making investments to make their products in the United States. In his speech, Trump repeated his longtime criticism of Powell by refining Powell's refusal to reduce interest rates.
“He should reduce interest rates. I think I understand much better the interest than him because I really had to use interest rates. We should have interest rates down,” said Trump.
Trump appointed Powell to serve as president of the Fed in 2017, during his first mandate as president.
Trump initially congratulated Powell when he announced his appointment, saying Powell would be an “intense sage of the federal reserve”, but quickly embittered on his choice. He called on several occasions Powell to reduce interest rates.
In April 2019, Trump wrote on X, then known as Twitter, that Powell held the US stock market by not reducing interest rates.
More recently, on April 17, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Powell's termination cannot come quickly enough” after Powell said that Trump's radical prices in the world could cause higher inflation and lower economic growth.
“The ECB should reduce interest rates for the 7th time, and yet,” too late “Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is still too late and bad, published yesterday, which was another, and typical,” mess! “” Wrote Trump in his article.
In the same position, Trump said that “Powell's termination could not come quickly enough”. He later said that he had “no intention” to dismiss Powell.
Trump repeatedly said that he had the power to withdraw Powell before the end of Powell's mandate in May 2026. It is not clear if it is able to do so. The law indicates that a president cannot withdraw an official from the Fed “for good”, as for misconduct and not on political disagreements.
In November, shortly after Trump won the presidential election, Powell told journalists that Trump could not dismiss him because he was “not authorized under the law”. Powell also said he would not resign from the Fed president if Trump asked.
A representative of the Federal Reserve refused to comment on Trump's remarks on Wednesday. The White House did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.
