President Donald Trump said on Friday he had a good meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and got the impression that the head of the U.S. central bank might be ready to lower interest rates.

This was the fifth consecutive meeting at which the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) kept its benchmark Federal Funds rate unchanged at 4.25-4.5%.

The Federal Reserve voted to leave its short-term interest rate unchanged as expected, despite mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to lower them.

Her resignation now paves the way for Trump to put his own nominee in for the Board of Governors. Two of his prior appointments, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, voted against the decision at Wednesday's meeting to hold the Fed's key rate steady, instead indicating they wanted to lower.

Chair Jerome Powell has said the Federal Reserve would likely have cut rates already if not for Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

The Federal Reserve left its target interest rate unchanged Wednesday, brushing off pressure from President Trump to cut rates. Two members of its Board of Governors dissented, the biggest divide on the board in decades.

Those disagreements come as Trump unleashes an unprecedented amount of public pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates. Trump has said the chief central banker is “too l

Donald Trump has argued that the Fed would only cut interest rates close to the election to help his political opponents.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s top U.S. economist now expects the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates three times in 2025, beginning with a 25-basis-point cut in September.