Jerome Powell says central bank is waiting to see tariffs’ impact on US prices as president claims ‘incompetence’
The Federal Reserve is well placed to wait and see how tariffs affect US prices before cutting interest rates, its chair, Jerome Powell, insisted, defying renewed demands from Donald Trump.
The US president has disregarded the central bank’s longstanding independence to repeatedly call for rate cuts to spur economic growth and launch a series of personal attacks on Powell.
In an overnight social media post, Trump branded the Fed chair as “very dumb” and claimed the central bank’s refusal to lower rates since December – in part, the result of uncertainty sparked by his own administration’s erratic economic strategy – was damaging the US.
“We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
