Trump calls on Fed Board of Governors to intervene if Powell does not lower interest rates

On July 30, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) decided to keep interest rates unchanged, marking five consecutive meetings in which the US benchmark interest rate was kept in the range of 4.25% to 4.50%.

The Fed's decision and comments from Chairman Jerome Powell after the recent meeting have dampened expectations that borrowing costs could fall in September.

This also angered US President Donald Trump - who often calls for the Fed to cut interest rates immediately.

According to Reuters, in a social media post on August 1, Mr. Trump asked Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to "immediately and drastically reduce interest rates."

"If he continues to refuse (to lower interest rates - PV) , the Board of Governors should take control and do what everyone knows needs to be done," Mr. Trump emphasized.

This is also the first time in more than 30 years that two of the Fed's seven governors voted against the decision to keep interest rates unchanged, including Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller.

Mr Trump also mentioned this disagreement in another post: "The strong disagreements on the Fed board will only get louder."

Also on August 1, Ms. Bowman and Mr. Waller said that the decision to keep interest rates unchanged this week could cause further damage to the economy .

Both Fed officials supported a 25 basis point cut at the July 30 meeting. They argued that the inflationary impact of Mr Trump’s tariffs would be temporary and that the central bank should focus on strengthening the economy to avoid further weakness.

Delaying interest rate cuts "could weaken the labor market and slow economic growth," AFP news agency quoted Mrs. Bowman.

Meanwhile, Mr. Waller said that "waiting and seeing (is) too cautious, does not properly balance the risks and could cause policy to lag."

Chairman Powell previously said the US economy remained strong and said the Fed would continue to monitor economic data in case inflation rose due to new tariffs.