President Donald Trump, right, speaks as Jerome Powell, Trump’s nominee as chairman of the Federal Reserve, listens during a nomination announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 2, 2017.
Olivier Douliery | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the U.S. central bank, saying they “failed to stop the problem they created with Inflation” and have done a “terrible job on Bank Regulation.”
Trump delivered the broadside on Truth Social two hours after the Fed opted to maintain a key interest rate at its current level. It was the first rate decision of Trump’s term.
Last week, Trump said he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”
Powell has stressed the importance of the central bank’s independence from outside influence, and newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has echoed that view.
But Trump — who appointed Powell in 2018 but soon soured on the pick — has questioned the longstanding tradition of Fed independence, saying he believes the president should get a say on interest rate decisions.
As a presidential candidate in 2024, Trump said he would not reappoint Powell when his current term as Fed chair ends in 2026, though he also said he would not try to end Powell’s tenure early.
At a news conference earlier Wednesday afternoon, Powell deflected all questions surrounding Trump and his criticisms of the Fed.
That did not spare him from Trump, whose Truth Social post blamed Powell and the Fed for the inflation that followed the Covid pandemic and hung over the Biden administration.
Trump said he would bring down costs himself, rehashing a number of his economic agenda items including “slashing Regulation” and “reigniting American Manufacturing.”
“The Fed has done a terrible job on Bank Regulation,” Trump wrote in the post. He said that the Treasury under Bessent will “lead the effort to cut unnecessary Regulation” and “unleash lending for all American people and businesses.”
The president also accused the Fed of focusing on the sort of progressive ideals — such as climate change, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — that the new administration has quickly sought to scrap.
“If the Fed had spent less time on DEI, gender ideology, ‘green’ energy, and fake climate change, Inflation would never have been a problem,” Trump wrote. “Instead, we suffered from the worst Inflation in the History of our Country!”
