Trump's brief truce with Fed Chair Jerome Powell ends with renewed attacks over interest rates

The truce didn’t last a week.

President Donald Trump picked up where he left off on Thursday and reignited his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell a day after the central bank decided not to change its benchmark interest rate. 

Jerome “Too Late” Powell has done it again!!! He is TOO LATE, and actually, TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Put another way, ‘Too Late’ is a TOTAL LOSER, and our Country is paying the price!”

Trump’s renewed volleys of criticism and personal insults signal he appears prepared to keep up his intense pressure campaign against Powell for the foreseeable future. He has argued the Fed has put a fence on economic growth and rendered payments on the debt more expensive by not slashing interest rates. Trump has demanded interest rates to be at least three percentage points lower.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept its interest rate steady between 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent for the fifth meeting in a row. Two members of the Board of Governors appointed by Trump broke ranks and voted to raise interest rates, the first such splintered decision in three decades.

A lower interest rate usually stimulates economic activity by encouraging consumers and businesses to borrow cheaply. The Fed, though, has been cautious of taking that step and has favored sitting still while determining whether Trump’s tariffs cause price increases. Powell said he expects any price pressures to be temporary.

Analysts expect the central bank to cut interest rates later this year, but Powell didn’t forecast a move in either direction. “We have made no decisions about September,” he said at a news conference after the decision. “We don’t do that in advance.”

The president visited the central bank last week to survey the renovation of its aging headquarters, making him the fourth sitting U.S. president to do so. The Fed renovation has been a magnet of attacks by Trump and his conservative allies who say Powell has bungled the project and produced an expensive mess that merits his ouster from the Fed.

The visit yielded some awkward moments between the president and Powell, who corrected him at one point about the cost of the renovation. Trump tempered his attacks and a day later called Powell “a good man.” Now, he’s back to being “Too Late” on interest rates.