President Donald Trump said on Friday that his meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome on Thursday was “very good,” adding that he believes Powell is ready to finally lower interest rates.
Trump met with Powell to tour the construction of the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., and to discuss the Fed’s position on interest rates, an issue over which Trump has routinely blasted Powell. The Fed is set to meet again next week to discuss interest rates, but Powell told Congress last month that he was not considering a rate cut at the Fed’s July meeting, citing uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs.
“I think we had a very good meeting on interest rates,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing on his trip to Scotland. “[Powell] said to me — now I don’t know if he’s going to say this … on what day he speaks — he said to me very strongly, ‘The country is doing well.’ He said, ‘Congratulations, the country is doing really well.’”
“And I got that to mean that I think he’s going to start recommending lowering rates,” the president added.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump might have just convinced Fed Chair Jerome Powell to *LOWER* interest rates.
LMAO! The meeting for rates is next week…
“We had a very good meeting on interest rates. He said to me…’the country is doing well.’ He said, ‘congratulations.’ I got… pic.twitter.com/JnvPMY7D55
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 25, 2025
Trump has reportedly considered firing Powell, which would be an unprecedented move, but the president said last week that he would wait for Powell’s term as the Chair to expire in early 2026 before choosing his replacement. Trump has called the Fed Chair one of the “most destructive” people in government, and took to Truth Social after his meeting with Powell on Thursday to again urge him to lower interest rates.
During his walkthrough of the Federal Reserve construction with Powell, Trump challenged him on the total cost of the renovations. With Powell by his side, Trump told the cameras that the renovations for the building had increased to $3.1 billion, resulting in Powell looking confused and shaking his head, The Daily Wire previously reported. Trump handed Powell a copy of a document showing the construction costs.
“You just added in a third building,” Powell said after reading over the document.
“It’s part of the overall work,” Trump replied, and Powell shot back, “It’s not new.”
Mark Paoletta, General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Friday morning that “President Trump is 100% correct in the numbers he used on his tour of Federal Reserve (FRB) site yesterday,” showing a breakdown of the cost.
President Trump is 100% correct in the numbers he used on his tour of Federal Reserve (FRB) site yesterday.
FRB documents show FRB 2022 Budget (below) adopted in November 2021 was $1.4 Billion for the Eccles & 1951 Building portion of the FRB HQ project and a total budget for… https://t.co/54IzoACGhl pic.twitter.com/yRZ8iGWBAV
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) July 25, 2025
