Tariffs Chairman Donald Trump attacks Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and even tries to sack him.
Donald Trump lashed out again Thursday at U.S. central bank (Fed) chairman Jerome Powell, who refuses to lower the institution's interest rates, saying, "He'll leave if I ask him to."
"I'm not happy with him. I've let him know and if I want him to go, he'll go quickly, believe me," assured the American president in the Oval Office, alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
"It's past time for Powell's term to end," Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform earlier in the day, while the Fed chairman's second term is due to end in May 2026.
The latter "should have lowered interest rates a long time ago, like the ECB", the European Central Bank, added the American president, encouraging Mr. Powell to "do it now".
ECB officials, who meet every six weeks, have just agreed on a 0.25-point cut in key rates to bolster the eurozone economy.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that the ECB had to "face the unpredictable" and show itself to be "agile", deeming it impossible to commit in advance to a rate trajectory in the uncertain context of the US-led trade war.
She also declared her solidarity with her counterpart at the central bank of France.
