U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell departs after holding a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 7, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday angrily urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, minutes after the payroll firm ADP reported its lowest monthly private-sector jobs number in years.
“ADP NUMBER OUT!!! ‘Too Late’ Powell must now LOWER THE RATE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“He is unbelievable!!!” the president said of the central bank chairman, whom he has frequently pressured to shave borrowing rates in hopes of spurring economic growth.
“Europe has lowered NINE TIMES!” Trump added.
ADP’s report showed that private payrolls ticked up by just 37,000 in May, far below the Dow Jones forecast for 110,000.
It was the lowest monthly reading from ADP since March 2023.
The weak result came two days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its own monthly U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which is much more closely watched than ADP’s figure.
The two reports don’t usually mirror each other, largely due to the different ways they collect data. But this can be a good thing, by giving economists a fuller picture of what’s happening in the labor market.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the upcoming BLS report for May to show an increase of 125,000 jobs.
Trump met with Powell at the White House last week to discuss the economy, but readouts from both sides suggest that the private meeting turned confrontational.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump told Powell that the Fed chairman was “making a mistake by not lowering interest rates, which is putting us at an economic disadvantage to China and other countries.” The Fed said that Powell stressed to Trump that monetary policy must be guided by objective economic data, not politics.
Trump has attacked Powell regularly since retaking office, calling him a “major loser” and branding him with the derisive nickname “Too Late” as a criticism of the Fed continuing to hold rates steady.
Trump has repeatedly hinted that he was considering firing the Fed chair before his term expires in May 2026, even as Powell maintains that the president cannot legally remove him.
Trump appeared to back down from his threat in April, saying he had “no intention” of firing Powell. But he has continued to publicly vent his frustrations about the Fed chair.
As Powell keeps his powder dry, the European Central Bank on Thursday is likely to lower rates again, marking the eighth cut since last June.
The expected move comes as the euro zone experiences easing inflation and tepid growth, teeing up more interest rate cuts even as Trump’s mercurial tariffs and other geopolitical forces stoke global economic uncertainty.