White House Keeps Pressure on Powell Over Rate Cuts and Renovations

The White House showed no sign of easing its pressure campaign on Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, who is facing allegations of mismanaging both the economy as well as a roughly $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

President Trump on Tuesday accused Mr. Powell of being “political” for not voting to cut interest rates this year and ignoring his demands to reduce borrowing costs by around 3 percentage points. Those decisions have so far been unanimously supported by the Fed’s policy-setting committee.

“Our economy is so strong now, we’re blowing through everything, we’re setting records,” the president said at an event with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines. “People aren’t able to buy a house because this guy is a numbskull, he keeps the rates too high, and probably doing it for political reasons.”

Mr. Trump claimed that Mr. Powell had cut rates “just before the election to try to help Kamala, or whoever he was trying to help, he probably didn’t know.”

The Fed lowered interest rates by a percentage point last year as inflation moderated and the labor market showed signs of cooling. That included a reduction of half a percentage point in September, two months before the election, followed by a quarter-point cut in November and December.

Since then, policymakers have stuck to a wait-and-see approach toward further interest rate cuts, citing the vast economic uncertainty unleashed by Mr. Trump’s policies, including tariffs. Before moving on rates again, Fed officials have said they want to gather further evidence that inflation is on track to return to its longstanding 2 percent target over time, or that the labor market is starting to soften more notably.