President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with cryptocurrency executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, August 19, 2026.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed frustration with the Federal Reserve’s failure to cut interest rates, arguing that strong economic data should not prevent the central bank from taking an accommodative policy stance.
As in previous years, Mr. Trump accused Fed officials of being politically motivated, but excluded Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom the president nominated for the top position earlier this year.
Trump said Warsh was doing a “great job” in replacing Jerome Powell, who took office in May, in a position he had regularly criticized for not rushing to cut interest rates. Mr. Powell will remain on the board as president.
“The problem is he has a board of directors. It’s a political committee,” Trump told reporters. “The people who were put in by Obama, Biden, and me, and you know, there’s still quite a few left, they vote to raise rates. I don’t know if they’re raising rates because they think they’re doing a good thing or because they like the politics of raising rates.”
In fact, the Fed hasn’t voted to raise the benchmark interest rate in more than three years. In 2025, the Federal Open Market Committee implemented three cuts in the second half of the year, following three cuts in the previous year.
However, the pace of cuts was not enough to satisfy President Trump. The president has argued that the cuts are necessary to maintain economic growth and ease the financing burden of the nation’s nearly $40 trillion debt.
“What I’m saying is that years ago, 25 years ago, when the country put out good numbers, interest rates went down because the country got stronger,” Trump said. “Right now, when we release good numbers, the better they are, the worse interest rates are.”
President Trump’s comments came on the same day the FOMC released minutes of its July meeting. The summary showed that “many” officials expect a rate hike will be necessary unless inflation picks up further. Inflation statistics have generally been positive since that meeting, but the annual rate remains well above the Fed’s 2% target.
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of just 1.5% in the second quarter, lower than expectations of 2.1% for the first three months of the year.
President Trump also complained about the United States’ position compared to some of its global competitors. Specifically, he noted that Switzerland’s benchmark interest rate has been pegged near zero as it grapples with the opposite problems facing the United States: very low inflation and an unusually strong safe-haven currency.
“Countries like Switzerland have the highest interest rate in the world at 0.5%, but we pay 3.5%,” he said. “I have the absolute right to cut off all trade with countries like Switzerland.”
At the same time, President Trump said that while he thinks about unreasonably high interest rates, he doesn’t think the U.S. has a problem with the bond market.
Earlier Wednesday, the Treasury Department announced it would ramp up its bond-buying program, in response to a surge in long-maturity bonds. This program is specifically targeted for a duration of at least 10 years.
