Trump says 'not much' doubt in his mind that interest rates will soon be lowered

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that there was “not much” doubt in his mind that interest rates would soon be lowered.

“I just think they’re going to be lowered. I mean, they should be lower," Trump told NBC News.

“We’re way high, OK?” he said. “We’re way high in interest. We have now, with me and with all the money, I’m — I’ve always been good at money — and with all the money coming into our country, we’re a rich country again. We have debt, but we also have growth, and the growth will soon make the debt look very small."

Trump said he would not have picked Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, to lead the Fed if he wanted to raise interest rates.

On Jan. 30, Trump announced that he had nominated Warsh to serve as the next chairman of the central bank.

The nomination followed Trump’s sustained criticism of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom he repeatedly attacked as the Fed kept interest rates steady last year before cutting them at three meetings later in the year.

Trump has repeatedly said that he would appoint a Fed chair who favors lower interest rates.