Trump Tells Powell He Is Making a Mistake by Not Cutting Interest Rates
President Trump met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday for the first time since returning to the White House, telling the central banker he’s making a mistake by not lowering interest rates.
Powell stuck to his usual playbook of declining to discuss the monetary-policy outlook and stressing that central bankers will make interest-rate decisions based solely on “careful, objective and non-political analysis,” according to a Fed statement.
The meeting, which lasted about half an hour in the Oval Office, came at the president’s invitation about two weeks ago, a person familiar with the matter said. It followed a familiar script that has played out on several occasions in private—and many more in public—since 2018, when Trump grew frustrated at the level of interest rates during his first presidency.
“The president did say that he believes the Fed chair is making a mistake by not lowering interest rates, which is putting us at an economic disadvantage to China and other countries,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a news conference. “The president has been very vocal about that both publicly—and now I can reveal—privately, as well.”
