President Donald Trump is hailing "great numbers" with the Consumer Price Index rising just 0.1%, but he is repeating his call for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to act more quickly on dropping the interest rates by "one full point."
"CPI just out; great numbers!" Trump wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social.
"Fed should lower one full point. Would pay much less interest on debt coming due. So important!!!"
Vice President JD Vance chimed in, too, Wednesday, calling out Powell's inaction on interest rate reductions "monetary malpractice."
"The president has been saying this for a while, but it's even more clear: the refusal by the Fed to cut rates is monetary malpractice," Vance wrote on X.
Vance was responding to the hailing of the slower rise in CPI than projected (0.3%) month over month as the administration is taking a small bow for progress on slowing record-high inflationary pressures from the era of former President Joe Biden's administration.
Notably, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is leading trade talks with China that might lead to a trade deal to help rebalance the global trade order. There are reports indicating Bessent's next role might be to succeed Powell as the next Federal Reserve chairman.
Powell's term ends a year from now, and Trump has said that ending cannot come "soon enough" but Trump has thus far demurred on questions of whether he might force Powell out before his term ends in May 15, 2026.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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