CNBC | Thursday, April 17, 2025 
Trump again calls for Fed to cut rates, says Powell’s ‘termination cannot come fast enough’

President Donald Trump on Thursday again called for the Federal Reserve to lower rates and even hinted at the “termination” of Chair Jerome Powell. Indeed, the European Central Bank has been cutting rates as it tries to boost growth in the region. The ECB lowered rates again later Thursday. A senior White House official told CNBC that the post should not be seen as a threat to fire Powell, but rather as a reinstatement of Trump’s frustrations with the Fed chief. However, Trump doubled down on his post later in the day, telling reporters: “I don’t think he’s doing the job. He’s too late, always too late … Slow, and I’m not happy with him. I let him know it, and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.” Trump also ignored multiple follow-up questions on whether he was trying to remove Powell. The post comes a day after Powell delivered a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago in which he noted that the administration’s tariffs put the central bank in a tricky spot as it decides whether to tame inflation or boost growth. “If that were to occur, we would consider how far the economy is from each goal, and the potentially different time horizons over which those respective gaps would be anticipated to close,” Powell said. Those comments contributed to a steep sell-off on Wednesday. This is not the first time Trump has criticized Powell’s approach to U.S. monetary policy. Trump posted on April 4, two days after the administration’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, that it would be “a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always ‘late,’ but he could now change his image, and quickly.” – Read more