WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump stood on a construction site Thursday at the Federal Reserve and insisted there was “no pressure” being applied to Fed Chair Jerome Powell about lowering interest rates. He and top aides then spent the next 16 hours turning up the heat on Powell — and the president was at it again on Monday.

Trump garnered headlines last week for backing off — at least for now — on his openness to firing Powell or pressuring him to step down before his term ends next year.

“I think he’s going to do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is. Even people that believed in the higher rates, they’re all on board,” the president said of Powell on Thursday. “They all want to see the interest rates come down. It’s very important.”

Trump has spent much of his first six months back in office calling Powell names such as “numbskull,” “stupid” and “stubborn,” willing to take on the country’s top central banker in personal terms that previous presidents had purposely avoided.

White House aides often decline to reveal any details about the president’s meetings with lawmakers, foreign leaders and others. But Trump took a different tack after a conversation with Powell at the Fed construction site.

“No, I didn’t think it was tense,” he said Thursday of talk with the chair as they toured a renovation project at the Federal Reserve building that Trump has griped is over budget and behind schedule. “No, I thought we had a good meeting. … There was no tension.”

Trump on Friday morning shifted into expectations-setting mode. Speaking to reporters on the White House’s South Lawn as he departed for a five-day trip to his golf courses in Scotland, the president predicted the central bank would soon lower borrowing rates.

“I think we had a very good meeting on interest rates,” Trump said over the high-pitched squeal of Marine One’s idling engines.

“He said, ‘Congratulations, the country is doing really well,’” the president recalled. “And I (took) that to mean that I think he’s going to start recommending lower rates.”

Delivered matter of factly, the remark appeared intended to pressure Powell by creating a narrative in the run-up to the next Fed meeting, slated for Wednesday, not Thursday as Trump said.

That came after Trump was asked at the construction site if his scrutiny of the renovation project was intended to press Powell on interest rates — or as a warning he might fire the chair. “No, there’s no pressure,” he responded.

‘Need to come down’

After the blink-and-you-will-miss-it motorcade ride back to the White House on Thursday, Trump hadn’t shed his hard hat for long before several top aides spoke to reporters outside the West Wing. Their message, among other topics, included describing Powell as the last remaining governor on an economic engine that was ready for liftoff.

In fact, it took only a handful of sentences for Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to call on Powell and the Fed to drop rates.

“We had a great visit to the Fed to see the renovation. I think we’ve got a lot of progress in being able to see on the ground what’s occurring, develop theories of the case. We’re going to keep at it,” Vought said of the Fed facilities renovation project. “The president was very clear. Interest rates need to come down.

“The country is exploding, and there’s this one part that could allow it to go even higher, to have relief for families that want to get new mortgages. Very, very important,” Vought added on a sweltering summer day outside the White House.

The word “rates” came up 31 times during an 18-minute Q&A session two Trump aides held with reporters Thursday. Notably, like Trump, his aides have begun to frame current interest rate levels as a hindrance to Americans’ ability to build and purchase homes.

“I think (Trump’s) a builder. He cares about the cost. The costs have gotten out of control. And then separately … the president runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In his first term, people were able to buy a mortgage for 3 percent. These days after Biden’s inflation and what happened with rates, now you’re looking at 7% mortgages,” Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte said Thursday after the Fed renovations tour. “So this is of great concern to the president.”

Some Democratic lawmakers and strategists have raised concerns about Trump’s rhetoric toward the Fed, which previous presidents have said should remain independent — in part to inject calm into often-volatile stock markets.

“What’s on your menu? The Federal Reserve Act says that the President can only remove a member of the Board of Governors of the Fed ‘for cause.’ And Trump’s only cause for firing Powell is ‘Cause he feels like doing it,’” Donna Brazile, a former two-time acting Democratic National Committee chair, wrote Saturday on the social platform X. “Tell Trump to leave the Feds alone.”

Trump returned to the topic Monday when asked during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland if Powell should lower rates.

“I think he has to,” Trump replied. “In Europe, they had 11 (rate) cuts. In other places, they had 10 or 11 cuts, and we had none.”

“But I’m not going to say anything bad. We’re doing so well, even without the rate cut. With the rate cut, it would be better,” he added. “It affects our housing a little bit. Look, we should be 3 points lower.”

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