Trump bemoans high interest rates and indicates he might pressure Fed to lower
Former President Donald Trump complained that interest rates are too high and indicated that if he gets another term in office, he might pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to loosen monetary policy.
In an interview set to air Sunday on NBC's «Meet the Press,» Trump also hinted that he would at least consider removing Powell.
«Interest rates are very high. They're too high. People can't buy homes. They can't do anything. I mean, they can't borrow money,» Trump told MTP host Kristen Welker during her premiere on the long-running talk show. Welker replaces Chuck Todd, who hosted his final show last week.
Asked specifically by Welker whether he would try to strong-arm Powell into lowering rates, Trump said, «Depends where inflation is. But I would get inflation down.»
The remarks harken back to the contentious relationship the two officials had when Trump served from 2017-2021.
Using the platform formerly known as Twitter, Trump often berated Fed officials, once calling them «boneheads,» and compared Powell to «a golfer who can't putt.» Those remarks came while the Fed was raising interest rates in 2018 and 2019.
«We do know that I put a lot of pressure on him,» Trump told Welker. «It was outside pressure, because nobody knows whether or not you can really do that, but I did, because I thought his interest rates were too high. And he ultimately dropped his interest rates.»
Indeed, the Fed began cutting rates in 2019, ultimately taking its benchmark borrowing rate down to near-zero as the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020.
Trump's criticism of the Fed came even though he appointed Powell, who was confirmed in 2018, to succeed Janet Yellen, who went on to become Treasury secretary under President Joe Biden.
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