Trump: "U.S. Interest Rates Should Be Hurriedly Lowered to Below 1%"... Criticizes Fed Rate Hike

Trump: "U.S. Interest Rates Should Be Hurriedly Lowered to Below 1%"... Criticizes Fed Rate Hike

"U.S. is carrying almost every country in the world... this situation cannot continue."

U.S. President Donald Trump on the 16th (local time) expressed his critical stance on the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed) decision to raise the benchmark interest rate, stating, "U.S. interest rates should be 1% or lower."

President Trump made this remark on his social media platform Truth Social, saying, "We are by far the nation with the best credit in the world."

President Trump asserted, "Our country is booming with new investments," and "If we stopped trading with all the countries with whom we have a trade deficit, which is most of them, we would earn at least $1.5 trillion annually."

He continued, "The term 'deficit' is just a fancy word for 'loss'," and "We are 'carrying' almost every country in the world, and this situation cannot continue any longer."

This is interpreted as an emphasis on the need for interest rate cuts, based on the logic that since the U.S. is shouldering huge trade deficits to support the economies of other countries, it should not also bear the burden of high interest rates.

President Trump then urged, "Lower U.S. interest rates. Quickly!"

The Fed raised the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points (p) to an annual rate of 3.75-4.00% on this day. This is the first monetary tightening measure in 3 years and 2 months since July 2023.

It was particularly noteworthy as it was the Fed's first interest rate hike since the inauguration of Chairman Wash, appointed by President Trump.

Ahead of the November midterm elections, President Trump has consistently demanded interest rate cuts from the Fed and has openly expressed his expectation that Chairman Wash, whom he nominated, would lower interest rates.

However, the Fed, judging that the inflation rate remained high, decided to raise interest rates by a unanimous vote of the 12 FOMC members (Fed governors and regional Federal Reserve bank presidents) who had voting rights on this day.