Trump calls on Fed once again to lower rates after solid April jobs report

President Donald Trump on Friday issued his latest call for the U.S. Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, following a better-than-expected jobs report for April.

“Just like I said, and we’re only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!!” Trump wrote in an exuberant Truth Social post minutes after the latest nonfarm payrolls data came out.

“Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!” he wrote.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning that nonfarm payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 177,000 jobs in April, beating the Dow Jones estimate of 133,000. The figure came in below the downwardly revised 185,000 jobs added in March, however.

The post shows Trump continuing his efforts to influence the central bank’s decision-making process, challenging its long-held independence from the executive branch.

But it also shows Trump further scaling back his criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose job until recently appeared to be under threat.

Trump has long criticized Powell and badgered him to lower rates in hopes of spurring growth. Economic aide Kevin Hassett said last month that the White House was exploring rules under which the president could fire Powell.

Powell has maintained that Trump cannot legally fire him before his term as Fed chair expires in May 2026. But fears that Trump might still try to replace Powell with someone willing to bend to political pressure on rates have spooked markets and investors around the world.

On April 21, those fears triggered a sell-off that saw major indexes and the U.S. dollar slump on the same day. 

Since then, Trump has said he has “no intention” of firing Powell, and he has dialed back his criticism.

“I have a Fed person who is not really doing a good job,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday, without ever mentioning Powell by name.

“I want to be very nice and respectful to the Fed,” he added. “You are not supposed to criticize the Fed; you are supposed to let him do his own thing, but I know much more than he does about interest rates, believe me.”

Trump’s Friday morning message stood in contrast to his response to Wednesday’s news that the U.S. economy contracted for the first time since 2022.

Trump in that case blamed former President Joe Biden for the bad first-quarter GDP reading, claiming, “he left us with bad numbers.”

Later Wednesday, Trump suggested he would blame Biden again in the second quarter.

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.