Trump Says Fed Shows Ignorance in Holding Line on Interest Rates

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump reaffirmed his view that a Federal Reserve interest rate cut would help the U.S. economy grow more quickly, and said U.S. central bankers don't know what they're doing.

Growth “would be like a rocket ship” if the Fed eased, Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday as he prepared to travel to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“If we had a Fed that would lower interest rates we would be like a rocket ship, but we're paying a lot of interest and it's unnecessary,” Trump said. “We don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing, so it's one of those little things.”

The comment came on a day when the U.S. reported nonfarm payrolls growth in June of 224,000, above expectations and the most since January -- a result that relieved pressure on the Fed to slash interest rates to keep growth ticking along when it meets July 30-31.

The president has repeatedly criticized the Fed and Chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates in 2018 and failing so far to reverse course.

Trump also said on Friday that President Barack Obama had lower interest rates during his administration. “He paid close to zero interest rates. I'm paying real interest,” Trump said. “Yet our economy is much better than it's ever been.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Justin Blum

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