Trump slams Jerome Powell for maintaining steady interest rates: 'He's a political hack, not a smart guy'
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump is fuming at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
On Thursday, July 21, Trump branded Powell as a “political hack” and “not a smart guy” after the Fed once again refused to slash interest rates.
Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee left rates unchanged on Wednesday, marking the fifth time they’ve refused to cut since December—even as fresh GDP numbers showed the economy growing at a solid 3%. Trump wasn’t impressed with the Fed’s decision, especially considering the economic stats he believes call for a rate drop.
“Way better than expected,” Trump boomed about the 3% GDP growth.
The president even rattled off a list of pro-growth headlines, highlighting “hundreds of billions of dollars in new business investment” and “hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenues” pouring into the country—but none of it moved the Fed’s needle.
Donald Trump blasts Jerome Powell's decision-making
Donald Trump brought receipts. He pointed out that Jerome Powell wasn’t nearly as shy about slashing rates right before the election last year, and while inflation was still north of the Fed’s 2% target.
“Didn’t work out too well for them,” Trump remarked, referring to the Biden administration, “but he did lower them pretty substantially just prior to the election.”
Powell dropped rates three times before the 2024 vote, including a whopping half-point cut in September. Now, with Trump leading in the polls, those cuts are nowhere to be seen.
Trump also took a hammer to Powell over what he sees as a ridiculous renovation project at the Fed’s headquarters. The original estimate was $1.9 billion. The actual cost is a staggering $3.1 billion, once you include all the extras and “essentially the same thing” additions, as Trump put it.
The price tag clearly struck a nerve. During a recent visit to the Fed, Trump grilled Powell directly about the ballooning budget. Powell said he’s not expecting more overruns but insisted, “We’re ready for them,” and “we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use.”
Donald Trump gives a new nickname to Jerome Powell
The digs didn’t stop there. When Turning Point Frontlines reporter Monica Baldwin asked Trump if Powell was playing politics, he gave him a new nickname. “Well, he is. We call him Too Late. He’s too late. It’s his new nickname, Too Late Powell,” Trump quipped.
“He’s terrible, the Federal Reserve Chairman. Not only that, he’s building a building. He’s at $2.9 billion. It’s actually $3.1 if you include other areas that are essentially the same thing—way over budget, has no idea what he’s doing, and I would say he’s probably good at that compared to what he does with interest rates," he continued.
Trump admitted putting Powell in the chair was a mistake and took a jab at President Joe Biden for keeping him around.
“But, you know, we have him there, and it was a mistake. I put him in, and then Biden extended him. And Biden only extended him because he knew I couldn’t stand him, and that turned out to be not a good thing for Biden,” he said.
“He did lower interest rates just prior to the election—didn’t work out too well for them, but he did lower them pretty substantially just prior to the election," Trump snarked, before concluding, "He's a political hack, not very good. He's not a smart guy!"
