Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Anja Ettel and Holger Zschäpitz

17 September 2025

President Donald Trump is openly attacking the independence of the US Federal Reserve. At the ECB, you are the highest level of protection when it comes to financial stability. How worried are you about events in the United States?

An independent central bank is the best protection against high inflation. Inflation expectations only stay low if investors and consumers trust the central bank to keep prices stable. Otherwise, there is a risk of a dangerous spiral of rising prices and wages. It’s particularly critical if monetary policy is constrained by fiscal policy – what we call fiscal dominance.

Yet your arguments don’t seem to be making much of an impression on Donald Trump.

My point is very clear. If governments interfere in monetary policy, it leads to inflation and increasing interest rates further down the road – this isn’t theoretical, it’s…