President Donald Trump on Thursday said he’s not happy with the raising of interest rates by the Federal Reserve and suggested the central bank is working at cross purposes with his administration’s economic program.
In an interview published on CNBC, Trump said he wasn’t thrilled with the Fed’s rate hikes — despite calling Jerome Powell, whom he picked to replace Janet Yellen, a “good man” — and said he didn’t care that he was breaking a precedent under which presidents do not comment on the Fed so as to safeguard its independence.
“So somebody would say, ‘Oh, maybe you shouldn’t say that as president. I couldn’t care less what they say, because my views haven’t changed,” Trump said.
Second-quarter GDP is estimated to run at an annual rate north of 4%.
“Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best.” He added, “But I don’t like all of this work that goes into doing what we’re doing.”
“I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into this economy and then I see rates going up,” Trump said.
The Fed has raised rates twice this year and is forecasting two more increases in 2018. Powell told Congress this week that more rate hikes would be appropriate “for now,” suggesting the central bank might pause its campaign in 2019.
The unprecedented stimulus of tax cuts and additional government spending at this stage of the economic cycle has raised questions about how hot the U.S. economy can run.
Last month, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow fired the first shot at the Fed, saying he hoped it moved slowly to raise rates.
Read: It’s been decades since the White House has warned the Fed the way Kudlow just did
Powell has said he’s not concerned about political pressure from the administration. In an interview with the public-radio program “Marketplace,” Powell said “the Fed has a long tradition of conducting policy independent of all political concerns.”
Economists said Wall Street may begin to worry the Fed would not be as aggressive to keep inflation under control because of White House pressure.
The President of #Turkey recently complained about his central bank, too. Best to respect the #Fed's independence. https://t.co/7XWAmmqEso
— Carl R. Tannenbaum (@NT_CTannenbaum) July 19, 2018
