Within hours of the Fed’s announcement that it had raised benchmark rates, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to once again say he believes interest rates should move lower, not higher.
President Trump declared:
“Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World — BY FAR. Our Country is BOOMING with new Investment! If we stopped trading with every country that we have a Deficit with, which is most of them, we would make at least 1.5 Trillion Dollars a year. The word “Deficit” is nothing more than a fancy word for LOSS.
We are “carrying” almost every country in the World, and that cannot go on any longer. LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!”
President Trump has vocally called for lower interest rates since he moved into the White House. He infamously hammered the previous Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, publicly lambasting him and going so far as to try and pressure him to exit the Fed by investigating expenditures for a renovation of the Fed.
Current Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, on the other hand, has been well regarded by Trump, but defying the President’s implicit request may trigger the President’s legendary ire.
The statement about stopping trade with US partners and potential benefits to the country stretches reality.
Many observers saw the Fed’s decision to raise rates as promoting the central bank’s credibility and embracing its independence, ostensibly beyond beltway politics. Still, it is probably no fun for Warsh to be the current target of the President’s vitriol.
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