President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he will announce his pick to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors sometime next week.
Trump has criticized incumbent Chairman Jerome Powell for failing to rapidly cut interest rates. Powell, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, is not set to depart his post until May. His full term on the board expires in 2028.
“We’re going to be announcing next week,” Trump said during his Thursday Cabinet meeting. “It’ll be a person that will, I think, do a good job. We’re paying far too much interest.”
“We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world, because a lot of these countries are successful only because of us, because we allow them to have surpluses,” he continued.
The president also took direct shots at Powell, who is currently the subject of a Justice Department investigation into renovations of the Fed’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
“I think he’s politically biased. I really do,” Trump said of Powell.
The president proceeded to predict that, “with the help of the Fed,” the economy could grow by as much as 10% this year. For reference, the economy grew at a booming rate of just over 4% to round out the previous year.
“With the help of the Fed, we could hit numbers that have never been hit before,” Trump declared.
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You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.