Trump denies frequent contact with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh amid pressure over interest rates
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump denies frequent contact with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh amid pressure over interest rates")
US President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order calling for more research and flexibility on vaccines, alongside US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (R) and Jayme Leagh Franklin (L), founder of The Conservateur, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2026. Photograph: (AFP)
Donald Trump denied frequent conversations with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh as the White House pressures the Fed over interest rates and Governor Lisa Cook.
US President Donald Trump has pushed back on claims of constant dialogue with Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh. He confirmed that the two speak sporadically after the Wall Street Journal reported that the conversations had been frequent. Trump said that story was wrong and he and Warsh had been in touch “one time, briefly, a few days ago.” This comes as, over the past week, the White House has been targeting Fed Governor Lisa Cook to remove her over unverified mortgage fraud allegations.
“I spoke to him one time, briefly, a few days ago, just a conversation. They made it sound like I live and breathe, you know, I speak to Kevin all the time, every time.” Responding to the questions of Federal Reserve Interest Rates, Trump said that they should be lower. “I know what he'd like to do, but he has to run it. He's got a board,” Trump said. “If it was up to him, it would be different, but he's got a board.”
The recent reports cast doubt about the independence of the central bank. Trump had been on the tail of former Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and had openly criticised him for not delivering a rate cut. He then engineered the appointment of Kevin Warsh, who was supposed to deliver him the desired rate cut. But following the weak employment data of July, futures markets see about a 75 per cent chance of a quarter-point rate increase by the midterms.
Now the White House is putting extreme pressure to fire Governor Lisa Cook, who is serving a 14-year term on the Fed’s Board. It is unclear whether Trump and Warsh's conversation happened before or after the call. It is unusual for a President to have direct contact with the Fed Chair. Trump had met Powell only once since his return to office in January 2025.
The headline US inflation stands at 3.5 per cent in June, a significant cooling from the 4.2 per cent, which is still above the 2 per cent target. Ahead of this week's consumer and producer price inflation reports, the biggest influences on Fed thinking, it is hard to predict what the Fed is considering. A rate cut could create further inflationary pressure amid a weak employment outlook.
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