Trump Asks the Federal Reserve To ‘Do the Right Thing’ and Cut Interest Rates as Fed Keeps Rate Steady

President Donald Trump urged Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve to slash its key interest rate in the wake of a vote that saw the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) keep the rate as-is, at least for now.

Trump took to Truth Social on the evening of March 19 to share his apparent displeasure with retaining the status quo when it comes to interest rates.

“The Fed would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as U.S. Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy. Do the right thing. April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!!” President Trump wrote.

The president did not immediately elaborate on his position but has vocally advocated for a slashing of interest rates from the Fed for a number of months.

Powell Says Trump Tariffs Constitute a ‘Good Part’ of Current Inflationary Pressure

For his part, Fed Chair Powell made remarks earlier on March 19 that gestured toward Trump’s recent tariff policy as being culpable for a “good part” of the nation’s more recent inflationary woes, per ABC News. He also signaled that the Fed was currently content to take up a more cautious, wait-and-see approach before making any further tweaks to the key interest rate.

“Uncertainty around the changes and their effects on the economic outlook is high,” Powell said. “We are focused on parsing the signal from the noise.”

Speaking more specifically about the tariffs exerting inflationary pressure in the near term, but then perhaps receding as time went on, Powell nonetheless indicated that uncertainty clouded the eventual result of the imposed tariffs.

“I think that’s kind of the base case. But as I said, we really can’t know that. We’re going to have to see how things actually work out,” Powell added, according to CNBC.

As the outlet pointed out, Trump previously stated that he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately” following the beginning of his second term in office: a threat that has so far gone unfulfilled.

However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously stated that the White House is more interested in bringing down the 10-year Treasury yield to lower long-term borrowing costs, in contrast to solely focusing on the key interest rate controlled by the Fed.