US President Donald Trump today blamed US Federal Reserve officials as he reiterated his criticisms of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and again called for lower interest rates.
“And the Fed Board has done nothing to stop this ‘numbskull’ from hurting so many people. In many ways the Board is equally to blame!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Fed officials meet later this month.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve governor Chris Waller said he would accept the job as Fed chair if asked by President Donald Trump, but so far the president has not contacted him about it.
“In 2019 the president contacted me and said, ‘Would you serve?’ And I said yes,” Waller said in comments to Bloomgberg Television, referring to Trump’s appointment of him to the Fed’s Board of Governors.
“If the president contacted me and said, ‘I want you to serve,’ I would do it. But he has not contacted me,” he added.
Waller’s comments come amid near daily criticism by Trump of current Fed chair Jerome Powell over the Fed’s reluctance to cut interest rates due to concern that the administration’s trade and tariff policies will increase inflation.
Waller favours a rate cut at the July meeting because he feels the tariffs are likely to have a limited impact on inflation, and he is concerned the economy and private sector hiring are starting to slow.
Though the unemployment rate is low, Waller said underlying data “are not indicating a super healthy private sector labour market,” and the Fed should “get ahead” of a possible hiring slowdown.