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“Too Late Powell” is in the president’s crosshairs again.
That’s the nickname Donald Trump has given to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he’s said repeatedly this year has been late to adjust monetary policy and lower borrowing costs for Americans.
Wednesday’s private payrolls report is the latest data point Trump is using to support his critique of the central bank chief.
ADP data showed private payrolls rose 37,000 in May, lower than the 110,000 jobs economists were expecting.
“ADP NUMBER OUT!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social shortly after the private payrolls data rolled out Wednesday morning. “‘Too Late’ Powell must now LOWER THE RATE. He is unbelievable!!!”
Treasury yields slid in the wake of the ADP figures on the outlook for the Fed to lower interest rates this year. The 10-year US Treasury yield, which Trump’s team has said he’s focused on, dropped eight basis points to about 4.37%.
Trump has said he wants to lower borrowing costs for Americans, and weak economic data — like new payrolls — gives some indication that the growth is slowing enough to give the Fed room to loosen monetary policy.
Still, most forecasters think it’ll be difficult to justify lower rates, given the expected inflationary impact of tariffs.
At a Washington, DC conference in May, Powell suggested that rates could stay higher for longer, due to the possibility that inflation will be “more volatile” than in the past decade. He also said there was the risk of more frequent “supply shocks” that could challenge the economy, but didn’t attribute those shocks to tariffs explicitly.
That hasn’t stopped the president from pressuring the central bank to lower rates ASAP. This year, Trump has lobbed several shots at the Fed Chair, calling Powell a “major loser,” and stating that Powell’s termination could not “come fast enough,” though he later clarified that he had no intention of firing the Fed Chair.
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