The president\u2019s frequent attacks against Jerome Powell have sparked concerns about the independence of the central bank.<\/p>\n
United States President Donald Trump has again attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell<\/a>, stepping up criticism that has sparked concerns over efforts to undermine the independence of the country\u2019s central bank.<\/p>\n In remarks before religious figures at the White House on Monday, Trump called Powell<\/a> a \u201cknucklehead\u201d and insisted that he should lower interest rates.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a knucklehead. Stupid guy. He really is,\u201d Trump said, insisting that inflation is not currently a serious concern for the economy and that interest rates should be brought down to one percent.<\/p>\n The US president\u2019s frequent barbs and threats to replace Powell have previously spooked markets<\/a>, wary of what some investors see as an effort to bring the central bank and the crafting of monetary policy under greater political control.<\/p>\n The central bank chief has thus far refused to budge on the question of interest rates, saying that it is still too early<\/a> to bring them down given sources of potential disruption such as changing tariff policy.<\/p>\n Trump said over the weekend that he is planning to place important US trading partners such as the European Union and Mexico under a 30 percent tariff<\/a> starting on August 1, and has warned other countries<\/a> they could face similar rates or worse if they do not swiftly come to individual agreements with the US.<\/p>\n Kevin Hassett, an economic adviser to Trump, also stated over the weekend that the president might be able to fire Powell for cause, citing higher-than-expected expenses for the renovation of the bank\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n The Fed has been in the process of renovating two buildings for its offices in Washington, DC for several years, with a current cost estimate of $2.5bn, about $700m more than originally anticipated.<\/p>\n Such cost overruns are far from atypical in Washington, but officials in the Trump administration have pounced on them as a potential door to firing Powell, whom Trump has long criticised.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s top budget adviser Russell Vought said last week that the White House is \u201cextremely troubled\u201d by the expense of the project, which critics saw as an effort to pile additional pressure on the central bank. Vought played an important role in the controversial conservative blueprint for a second Trump term known as Project 2025<\/a>, which envisions a radical restructuring of government and consolidation of greater power in the executive branch.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the US Inspector General, a nonpartisan government watchdog, says that Powell has requested a review of the cost overruns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president\u2019s frequent attacks against Jerome Powell have sparked concerns about the independence of the central bank. United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[331,32,1700,476,12,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-265038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-banks","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-inflation","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-us-canada","16":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114853286605116596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}