Trump wants lower rates. The Fed sees little reason to comply.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The White House wants lower rates. The Federal Reserve just got a week’s worth of reasons not to deliver them at its March meeting.

President Donald Trump has consistently called for the Fed to cut rates, even though inflation has remained above the central bank’s 2% target level. Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair in May, has also called for lower interest rates. But January payrolls rose 130,000, wage growth firmed and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3%.

Inflation is still running close to 3%. And in speech after speech, voting Fed officials made clear they are in no rush to ease further. Taken together, the message is clear that the bar for another rate cut has moved higher.

Trump celebrated the jobs report on Wednesday by arguing the U.S. should be paying “MUCH LESS" on its borrowings, writing on social media that lower rates would save at least $1 trillion a year in interest costs. But strong growth and stable hiring aren’t conditions that typically prompt a central bank to accelerate easing, particularly when inflation has been above target for nearly five years.

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said this week that rates could remain on hold “for quite some time," arguing policymakers shouldn’t try to fine-tune policy while inflation risks remain. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, meanwhile, warned that policy may already be near neutral and said she is more concerned about inflation staying stubbornly high than about labor-market weakness. Gov.