President Donald Trump attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday for not cutting interest rates and said he could fire him if he wanted to, renewing a threat from his first term that could cause a major legal showdown over the issue of the central bank's long-standing political independence.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's termination "cannot come fast enough," while calling for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates, the sort of pressure that Powell just a day before had pledged to resist as the Fed grapples with an outlook complicated by Trump's own policies.