Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” President Donald Trump said his pick for Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh would do a “great job” which should include the U.S. having the lowest interest rate in the world.
Co-host Joe Kernen asked, “Something else happening today and that that is your pick for Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is on Capitol Hill. We had a couple of guests today say the best thing that we need now is for Jay Powell to leave in May, like he’s supposed to, and have Kevin Warsh in his Fed chair for that next June meeting. But we still have this Justice Department probe hanging over. And I’ve seen things that you said in recent interviews, Mr. President. I want to ask you again if it would be possible for the Banking Committee to completely investigate all of your concerns about the cost overruns and the testimony of Jay Powell in front of Congress. If you could take that off-ramp to get this moving, and Jay Powell leaves, Kevin Warsh goes in. Is that something you’d consider dropping the DOJ probe and let the Banking Committee handle it?”
Trump said, “Joe, from the standpoint that we have to find out why a small building costs close to $4 billion, it’s not finished, by the way. They have a long way to go.”
Kernen asked, “Let’s say that things got too hot at that point just to make sure there was no inflation. Would you allow him to raise rates or not cut rates? Would there ever be a period where you could see that that was something that a Fed chair needed to do?”
Trump said, “I want Kevin. I think Kevin’s great. He’s really a central casting in a true sense. Okay, I think he’s going to do a great job. Yeah. If there’s time for it, I’ve been in favor of interest rate rises to stop inflation. I think it sort of is effective. But there’s one thing, and nobody ever talks about it but me, unfortunately, so I’m sure it’s not correct but I think it is. We should be we should have the lowest interest rate in the world. When I was a young guy growing up, we always had the lowest interest rate worldwide. We always did. And then, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, it started where Switzerland and other people had lower rates than us.”
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