Trump says US should be paying ultra-low interest rates

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said Monday that America should be paying much lower interest rates, criticizing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the Fed’s board over their policy.

“We should be paying 1% Interest, or better,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, sharing major world economies' interest rate data with a mark between Japan's 0.5% and Denmark's 1.75% indicating where the US "should be."

"Jerome 'Too Late' Powell, and his entire Board, should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to the United States," he wrote.

He said Fed officials "have one of the easiest, yet most prestigious, jobs in America, and they have FAILED."

Trump claimed that proper monetary policy would save America "Trillions of Dollars in Interest Cost," adding: "The Board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame."

Later, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that Trump sent a memo to Powell claiming that he “cost the country a fortune and should lower interest rates.”

At the daily press briefing, she said the stock market was on the rise again with Trump's “economic boom” and that the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes reached record highs.

Leavitt stressed that Trump is a "businessman first" and that he knows what he is doing, as he has a "proven economic formula."

She argued that the only problem is the high interest rates in the country.

"The American people want to borrow cheaply, and they should be able to do that. But unfortunately, we have interest rates that are still too high. President Trump sent a note to the Fed Chair today."

Showing the note in question, Leavitt explained that it was a list of interest rates of many countries around the world.

She said that Switzerland is at the top of the list and outlined the countries on the list that have lower policy rates than the US.

Referring to the note written on the list, Leavitt said: "It says, 'Jerome, you are as usual too late. You have cost the US a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost, and there is no inflation."

The president has repeatedly called for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, citing European central bank moves and warning that delays could stall the US economy.