This feels cool and ordinary.
Dining at the Trump White House is risky business for senior government officials. Just ask Jim Comey.
So when the president invited Jay Powell over for a fun birthday dinner [and who would Powell rather spend his birthday with than his underminer-in-chief?], we can only assume that Jay did some real quick political math, told Richard Clarida to get his ass over to the White House, then took special care to say nothing interesting and eat his overcooked steak as quickly as possible before getting the fuck out of 1600 Penn and ordering this:
At the President's invitation, Chair Powell and Vice Chair Clarida joined the President and the Treasury Secretary for an informal dinner tonight in the White House residence, to discuss recent economic developments and the outlook for growth, employment and inflation.
Chair Powell's comments in this setting were consistent with his remarks at his press conference of last week. He did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.
Translated: "Trump made me spend my birthday dinner listening to him brag about how great a job he's doing despite my terrible love of interest rates, while Mnuchin sat there mouthbreathing and staring at me with those dead eyes behind those fucking Transition shades, so I brought Dick Clarida to witness what was really said in case those two assclowns wanted to really ruin my special day by talking bullshit on Twitter about how I said "I screwed up on rates, I hate them now, you're the best Mr. President and I suck" or some bullshit."
And in case anyone was still confused...
Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the FOMC will set monetary policy in order to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.
Translated: "Jay-Pow gonna do Jay-Pow so stop trying to trap me in private dinners, you moron."