U.S. interest rates match those of Cameroon, Israel, and Guatemala.
President Donald Trump said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues “should be ashamed” for not lowering interest rates.
Writing in a June 30 Truth Social post, Trump inserted a list of interest rates established by central banks worldwide.
According to the president, the Fed should have set rates between 0.25 and 1.75 percent, in line with other countries such as Switzerland, Cambodia, Japan, and Denmark.
With a benchmark target rate of 4.25 and 4.5 percent, the United States mirrors that of Cameroon, Guatemala, Israel, Vietnam, and Gabon.
“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, and his entire Board, should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to the United States,” Trump said. “They have one of the easiest, yet most prestigious, jobs in America, and they have failed—And continue to do so.”
Trump reiterated that the United States would be saving “trillions of dollars in interest cost.”
“The Board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame. We should be paying 1 percent interest, or better!”
Trump has ratcheted up his pressure campaign to get Powell to reduce the federal funds rate—a policy rate that influences various business, consumer, and government borrowing costs—that he says is “artificially high.”
Speaking to reporters at a June 27 press briefing, Trump said he would “love” it if Powell stepped down ahead of his term expiring in May 2026.
“I’d love him to resign if he wanted to, he’s done a lousy job,” the president told the media. “I think we should be paying 1 percent right now, and we’re paying more because we have a guy who suffers from, I think, Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
In an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” the president stated that the country has “a bad Fed Chairman,” but noted that “the numbers are so good it doesn’t even matter that he keeps the rates artificially high.”
Last week, Trump revealed that he is considering three or four candidates to succeed Powell as the central bank chief, stopping short of naming individuals.
Trump stated again that he will not fire Powell.
By Andrew Moran
