President Trump stepped up his pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs on Monday, accusing its chair, Jerome H. Powell, in a handwritten note of costing the country “a fortune” and demanding that he cut interest rates “by a lot.”
In a separate social media post on Monday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Powell and his colleagues on the Fed’s Board of Governors, who vote on every monetary policy decision, “should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to the United States.”
“If they were doing their job properly, our Country would be saving Trillions of Dollars in Interest Cost,” Mr. Trump wrote. “The Board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame.”
The criticism is the latest in months of attacks in which Mr. Trump has insulted Mr. Powell directly and has even threatened to fire him as chair. On Friday, the president encouraged Mr. Powell to resign before his term as chair is up in May. Mr. Powell can stay on as a governor until 2028 if he chooses.
Mr. Trump has also floated naming a replacement for Mr. Powell before his term expires, a move that could complicate communications for the Fed.
The next opening on the Fed board is for the slot occupied by Adriana Kugler, whose term is set to expire in January. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floated the idea of appointing Mr. Powell’s successor to that position and later elevating that person to be chair.
One prerequisite for the next chair is that the person must be willing to lower interest rates, Mr. Trump said on Friday, a pledge that risks undermining the central bank’s longstanding independence from the White House.
The president’s note to Mr. Powell on Monday promoted savings of “hundreds of billions of dollars” if the Fed lowered interest rates. Republicans are trying to pass a sweeping tax and spending bill that is poised to raise the federal deficit sharply, which would force the government to earmark more money to cover interest payments on the debt. Mr. Trump has called for as much as a 2.5-percentage-point reduction in interest rates, well below the level of 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent that has been in place since January.
After lowering borrowing costs by a percentage point last year, the Fed has stuck to a “wait and see” approach on further cuts amid uncertainty about how the economy will respond to Mr. Trump’s policies, including tariffs.
One of the president’s biggest gripes is that other countries have continued to lower interest rates as the Fed has stood pat. His note to Mr. Powell was written on a piece of paper ranking the interest rates set by other countries from lowest to highest.
As the attacks on Mr. Powell continued, he was in Sintra, Portugal, meeting with other global central bankers. At a dinner on Monday to mark the start of the European Central Bank’s annual conference there, Christine Lagarde, the president of the bank, took a moment to recognize Mr. Powell.
He “epitomizes the standard of the courageous central banker,” Ms. Lagarde said, adding that Mr. Powell deserved the room’s applause. She thanked two other long-serving European policymakers, and then the room gave a standing ovation.
On Tuesday, Mr. Powell is scheduled to speak on a panel at the conference. In addition to Ms. Lagarde, other participants include Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England. Mr. Trump has routinely pointed to the European Central Bank, which has cut rates eight times over the past year, when criticizing Mr. Powell. The Bank of England has also cut rates over the past year, but kept borrowing costs steady at its most recent meeting in June.
Eshe Nelson contributed reporting.
Colby Smith covers the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for The Times.
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