Ahead of Fed meeting, Trump says US should have world's lowest interest rate
- Trump urges the Fed to cut rates, stating the US should have the world's lowest, defying economic data and political pressures
President Trump asserted the US should have the world's lowest interest rates, pressuring the Federal Reserve ahead of its policy meeting despite inflation data suggesting a rate hike.
- President Trump's call for lowest US interest rates.
- The Federal Reserve's impending interest rate decision.
- Political implications of a potential rate hike.
DOONBEG: No country should have lower interest rates than the US, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, days before the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting.
Speaking to reporters at the Irish Open golf tournament, Trump said he did not know whether Fed policy makers will raise interest rates at their meeting this week. But he argued that the US “should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world” no matter what the Federal Reserve’s data indicates about inflation and the economy.
The Fed meeting will take place less than a week after a key measure of underlying inflation, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, on Friday posted its largest increase in four months. That reinforced expectations that the US central bank will raise rates.
The central bank’s governors are meeting just weeks before the midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans keep their slim majorities in both chambers of the US Congress. A rate hike could add to voter concerns about affordability, according to recent Reuters polls.
Trump’s approval ratings have fallen as inflation has persisted. He has argued that the Fed’s interest rate levels have helped other countries at the expense of the US.
“I know more about formulas than anybody, and with the best credit in the world, we make other countries rich,“ Trump said on Sunday.
The president, a frequent critic of former Fed chair Jay Powell, has been more supportive of Fed leadership since his own pick for chair, Kevin Warsh, took charge earlier this year. But Trump recently has made his demands more clear.
“LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT,” Trump posted on social media two weeks ago.
Trump “will defend the independence of Kevin Warsh above all” no matter what the Fed does with interest rates, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told “Fox News Sunday.”
But Hassett also underscored Trump’s own preferences, saying “if it’s a rate hike … I’m sure he’s not going to be super happy about it.”
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