WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says the Federal Reserve (Fed) would be wrong to raise interest rates as his nominee Kevin Warsh prepares to chair his first Fed policy meeting.
Trump, in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, sought to push back against market sentiment after a blowout US jobs report for May spurred bets that the Fed’s next move will be a rate hike to keep inflation in check.
“Nowadays when you have good reports, the market goes down because they think they’re going to raise interest rates,” Trump said. “There’s no reason to raise interest rates.”
Trump’s comment adds to the economic and political forces tugging at Warsh as he prepares to chair his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 16 and 17.
Raising the benchmark rate “is the wrong thing to do”, Trump said.
“We should actually lower interest rates.”
Last Friday’s US employment report showed May job growth topped all forecasts, prompting a sell-off in treasuries and leading traders to fully price in a quarter-point increase in the Fed’s key rate by the end of the year.
Trump nominated Warsh to head the Fed after a relentless public campaign for the central bank to cut borrowing costs, though he has since said he wants Warsh to do his “own thing”.
In his comments to NBC, Trump hinted at some frustration.
“I’m living with Kevin,” Trump said. “I have a lot of respect for him, but my feeling is that when a country is doing well, they shouldn’t be penalised by immediately raising interest rates.
“You know, we have debt, we have other things,” he added, “We have things we want to take care of.
“I want to go bigger on the military.”
The sell-off in the bond market and recalibration of Fed wagers reflects growing confidence that the Fed under Warsh will need to raise borrowing costs to contain inflation that’s running above target.
Goldman Sachs economists last Friday scrapped their forecast for a Fed interest rate cut in December 2026 based on the stronger-than-expected US labour market.
They continue to expect two quarter-point rate cuts but have shifted the timing to 2027, in June and December.
Rate-hike expectations were reinforced by the US labour market readings as non-farm payrolls increased 172,000 last month after upward revisions to the prior two months, according to Bureau of Labour Statistics data.
The US unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.
With Trump’s approval ratings depressed by public concern about the US-Israel war on Iran, his stewardship of the economy and high petrol prices, he has argued that jobs and growth can help control inflation on their own.
“Now, if inflation comes, and, you know, people live with inflation, but if inflation comes what happens is you stamp it out,” he told NBC.
“But success can kill inflation just like higher interest rates.” — Bloomberg
