President Trump is "not happy" with rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve.
CNBC reported Thursday that Trump is frustrated with the central bank and concerned that interest rate hikes could disrupt the economic growth that he so often touts.
"I'm not thrilled," he told CNBC in an interview that the network will air on Friday. "Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I am not happy about it. But at the same time I'm letting them do what they feel is best." Trump claimed that the rate hikes were damaging his administration's efforts, saying he doesn't "like all of this work that we're putting into the economy and then I see rates going up."
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It's essentially unprecedented for a president to criticize the Fed this way, but Trump's comments are also unusual given his past views on interest rates. Previously, Trump said that low interest rates were creating a "false economy" under the Obama administration, but he also called the Fed's decisions part of a partisan plot to help Democrats look good.
Former Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said that "no president should interfere with the workings of the Fed," citing the "hallmark" independence of the central bank. Trump acknowledged that most officials wouldn't publicly criticize the Fed, but shrugged off any negativity. "So somebody would say, 'Oh, maybe you shouldn't say that as president,'" he said. "I couldn't care less what they say," he continued, because "I'm just saying the same thing that I would have said as a private citizen." Read more at CNBC.
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