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Donald Trump was unleashed in Jay Powell on Thursday, saying that the end of the mandate of the president of the federal reserve “cannot come quickly enough” because he accused him of not having to lower interest rates fairly quickly.
The American president said in an article on his Truth social platform that Powell was “always too late and bad”. He added that the Fed chief “should have reduced interest rates, such as (European Central Bank) a long time ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's dismissal cannot come quickly enough! ”
It was not clear if Trump referred to the planned end of Powell's mandate as president, which is scheduled for May 2026, or with an intention to withdraw from his role earlier.
The ECB has reduced its reference interest rate by a quarter of a point to 2.25% Thursday, in the event that Trump's trade war will reach growth. The American president convulted the world markets when he announced “reciprocal” rates raised on dozens of American business partners, before implementing a 90 -day break.
Until now, the Fed has kept the pending rates this year after having lowered them three times in a row in 2024, including a large movement of half a point in September. Officials said they are not likely to reduce rates at their next meeting in May, as they are waiting for more clarity on the impact of Trump prices.
In a speech on Wednesday, the president of the Fed, which was appointed by Trump in 2018, warned that the radical tasks of the American president would lead to slower economic growth and higher inflation.
Powell said Trump's prices had been “much greater than expected” and could put prices in a “difficult scenario” in which their double -compressed targets of maximum price and employment stability are in tension.
Asset was a frequent Powell critic, asking him to reduce borrowing costs. Earlier this month, the American president wrote on Truth Social: “Cut interest rates, Jérôme and stop doing politics!”
But in December, Trump told NBC News that he would not try to pass Powell from his position before the end of his mandate. “No, I don't think so. I don't see it,” said Trump.
The president of the Fed said on several occasions that he intended to serve his full mandate and said on Wednesday that the independence of the American central bank to fix interest rates as it judges it was “a question of law”.
He added: “We are never going to be influenced by political pressure. People can say what they want … But we will do what we do strictly without taking into account political or other factors.”
The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, supported Powell on Thursday, telling a press conference in Frankfurt that she had “a lot of respect for my estimated colleague and friend”.
She refused to comment on Trump's criticism, but said that the independence of the central bank was a “fundamental” principle within the euro zone and that the “good” BCE relationship with the Fed helped underlie global financial stability.
“We have demonstrated in the past that we could really operate on this basis and we will continue to do so in an unchanged and unchanged way, I am sure,” said Lagarde about relations between central banks.
The global markets remained stable following the last extent of Trump, the S&P 500 up 0.2% at the end of the morning. The yield on the US Treasury at 10 years old increased by 0.04 percentage points to 4.32%.
“Powell knows that Trump will always hate him everything he will do, and there is no need to try to please him,” said Mark Dowding, director of investment for fixed income at RBC BlueBay Asset Management.
Additional report by Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt
