Trump calls Fed's Powell 'most improved player'

President Donald Trump praised Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday as the "most improved player" in his administration, saying he only disagrees with the Fed chair "one one thing now:" negative interest rates.

"He has done a very good job over the last couple of months, I have to tell you that," Trump said during a Cabinet Room meeting with the governors of Colorado and North Dakota.

"Because I have been critical, but in many ways I call him my 'MIP.' Do you know what an MIP is? Most improved player. It's called the Most Improved Player award," he said.

But the president told reporters he still disagrees with Powell on the issue of negative interest rates.

Powell shot down the idea of cutting the Fed's short-term interest rate, which is now near zero, into negative territory, as central banks in Europe and Japan have done.

Such a move would require banks to pay interest on cash reserves that they hold at the Fed. That would be intended to encourage them to lend the money instead. Yet negative rates appear to have done little to stimulate the economies of the countries that have adopted them.

Trump has frequently expressed his desire for the Fed to adopt negative rates, insisting the U.S. is at a disadvantage against competitive countries like Germany and Japan which have already implemented them.

The president also told reporters he misses Vice President Mike Pence since Pence went into self-isolation after an aide was diagnosed with the coronavirus last Friday.

Asked how long the two planned to stay apart, Trump was unsure, calling it an "interesting question.

"I haven't seen Mike Pence and I miss him," Trump said. "I guess we said for a little while we'll stay apart because you don't know what happens with this very crazy and horrible disease. But we speak a lot on the phone."