Fed’s Miran says he didn’t promise Trump a dissent on rates

Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said he hasn’t spoken to President Donald Trump since the central bank’s policy meeting this week, and didn’t promise the president he would vote a particular way on interest rates.

“I will do independent analysis based on my interpretation of the data, based on my interpretation of the economy, and that’s what I will do and that’s all that I will do,” Miran said during an appearance Friday on CNBC.

Miran, an ally of President Donald Trump, is taking an unpaid leave of absence from his role as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to fill a temporary seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors. The unusual situation has drawn criticism from Democrats, who have said the arrangement poses a threat to the Fed’s ability to set policy independently of political considerations. 

Fed policymakers voted to lower the central bank’s benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point this week. Miran dissented, instead preferring a larger, half-point move. The policy meeting was Miran’s first since joining the board on Tuesday, just before the two-day meeting began.

Miran said Trump called him that morning to offer congratulations on his confirmation, but added he did not speak to the president about how he would vote at the meeting and hadn’t spoken to him since.

“He didn’t ask me to do any particular actions. I didn’t commit to doing any particular actions,” Miran said.

Policymakers also issued new quarterly projections for the path of interest rates following the meeting. Miran on Friday said the outlier forecast that calls for 150 basis points of total cuts this year was his. He said he made that forecast “based on my economic analysis, and that’s what I will continue to do.”

The question of independence has loomed large over the Fed this year amid intense pressure on the central bank from Trump. He is attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, an unprecedented move that has set the stage for a high-stakes ruling from the Supreme Court. Trump has also relentlessly pressed Fed Chair Jerome Powell and fellow policymakers to drastically lower interest rates. 

Miran, the only official to dissent at this week’s meeting, said he hopes to be a compelling force among policymakers while he’s there.

“I’ll be making my arguments in coming weeks and months, and I hope that I’ll be able to persuade some of my colleagues as we go along,” he said. 

He added that all of his colleagues, including Cook, were “extremely welcoming” of him. 

Policymakers’ decision to lower rates this week for the first time in 2025 followed a string of lackluster labor-market reports. Powell described the rate cut as a “risk management” move aimed at preventing the job market from softening further. In a statement accompanying their decision to cut rates, policymakers said they judge “that downside risks to employment have risen.” 

Meanwhile, Powell said officials must continue to guard against the possibility that Trump’s tariff policies will lead to persistent inflationary effects.

“We have a situation where we have two-sided risks, and that means there’s no risk-free path,” Powell said Wednesday. “And so it’s quite a difficult situation for policymakers.” 

Miran on Friday downplayed concerns about tariff-induced inflation.

“I don’t see any material inflation from tariffs. I see no evidence that it’s occurred,” he said.

Earlier Friday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said in an essay he sees two more quarter-point rate cuts this year, given the slowdown in the labor market.