In a tense and somewhat awkward meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, President Donald Trump made another plea for the Fed chair to lower interest rates, shortly after getting fact-checked by Powell on the supposed cost of renovations to Fed office buildings.
“Mr. President, are there things the chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticisms?” asked a reporter during the meeting.
“Well, I’d love him to lower interest rates!” Trump said, patting Powell on the back. “Other than that, what can I tell you?”
Trump has floated the idea of firing Powell over his refusal to cut interest rates, which currently sit at around 4.33%. After receiving blowback, however, Trump has moved to criticize Powell for a series of expensive renovations to the central bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., something critics have pegged as a tool to give Trump the legal pretext to fire Powell at a time of his choosing.
Trump has urged Powell to cut interest rates down to 1%, and has labeled Powell a partisan actor for having cut rates during former President Joe Biden’s four-year stint in the White House. But some experts have cautioned that arbitrarily cutting rates as Trump wants could backfire, and in effect kick off a wave of higher real-world interest rates and soaring prices.
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