No country should have interest rates lower than the United States, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, just days before the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy meeting.
Speaking to reporters during the Irish Open golf tournament, Trump said he did not know whether Fed policymakers would raise rates at this week’s meeting. But he argued that the United States “should have the lowest interest rate in the world,” regardless of what the data from the Federal Reserve indicate about inflation and the economy.
The Fed meeting will take place less than a week after a key indicator of underlying inflation, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, posted on Friday its largest rise in four months. That reinforced expectations that the U.S. central bank would raise rates.
Federal Reserve officials meet just weeks before the midterm elections, which will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majorities in the two chambers of Congress. An increase in rates could worsen voters’ concerns about purchasing power, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls.
Trump’s approval ratings have fallen as inflation persists. He argued that the Fed’s rate levels have helped other countries at the expense of the United States.
“I understand more about formulas than anyone, and with the best credit in the world, we are enriching other countries,” Trump said on Sunday.
The president, who has often criticized former Fed chair Jerome Powell, has shown more support for the Fed leadership since his own pick for the post, Kevin Warsh, assumed office earlier this year. But Trump has recently made his demands clearer.
“REDUCE INTEREST RATES OR I WILL STOP DEALING 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 else,” regardless of what the Fed does with interest rates, said the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, on the Fox News Sunday program.
But Hassett also stressed Trump’s own preferences, saying that “if it is a rate increase… I’m sure he won’t be very happy about that.”
