WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday that he still has confidence in Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh — despite the central bank’s board voting unanimously to raise interest rates.
“I do. I mean, I’m relying on Kevin, but he’s got a very tough board,” Trump told reporters upon arriving in North Carolina for a midterm campaign rally.
“I told Kevin, I said, ‘You might as well vote with the board because it’s just not going to matter.’ The board is very hostile. They’re very political. They’re doing the wrong thing. They’re a bunch of politicians.”
The Fed voted to raise benchmark rates by a quarter point to the 3.75% to 4% range, the first hike in three years — defying Trump’s threat to sever trade relations with dozens of countries in response.
“No matter how good a job, he’s got a hostile board,” Trump added in his first on-camera reaction.
“They’re raising that only for political reasons, and that’s a raise against Trump.”
The Fed’s decision followed a spike in energy prices and inflation caused by the Iran war.
Ahead of the decision, Trump pressured the board, writing Sept. 4 on Truth Social: “LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged ‘the President’ has an absolute right to do.”
As of 2025, the US ran a trade deficit with nearly 100 nations — including China, Mexico, Germany, Japan, India, South Korea, Canada and most members of the European Union.
Higher interest rates will increase the US government’s cost to service debt while indirectly affecting business and consumer borrowing, putting a squeeze on the economy just before the Nov. 3 election.
Warsh, 56, took office in May after Trump hand-picked him after railing against his predecessor Jerome Powell for balking at his demand to lower rates.
He is the son-in-law of Trump’s friend Ronald Lauder, himself the billionaire son of cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder.
Trump’s defense of Warsh followed a social media post that refrained from criticizing his Fed nominee.
“Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World — BY FAR,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in his first comments on the decision. “Our Country is BOOMING with new Investment!”
“If we stopped Trading with every country that we have a Deficit with, which is most of them, we would make, at least, 1.5 Trillion Dollars a year,” the president continued. “The word ‘Deficit’ is nothing more than a fancy word for LOSS.
“We are ‘carrying’ almost every country in the World, and that cannot go on any longer.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
