WASHINGTON — President Trump urged “numbskull” Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates Thursday — while confirming he plans to pick a new chair when Powell’s term expires next year.
Trump, who recently met with Powell in the Oval Office after publicly bashing him as too cautious, said that lowering benchmark rates by 2% could reduce the annual federal deficit by $600 billion.
In contrast to the US, Europe’s central bank has dropped rates “10 times — we’ve done none,” the president complained during an event in the White House East Room.
“Nobody understands.”