Trump Demands Fed Rate Cut, Threatens To Halt Trade With Deficit Nations

U.S. President Donald Trump increased the pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates on Friday amid fresh data that employers created 162,000 jobs in August. Trump also threatened to cut off trade with nations with large trade surpluses against the U.S.

Trump Pushes Fed For Lower Interest Rates

The latest U.S. jobs data showed that the economy was very strong, Trump said. He expects the numbers to help bring down borrowing costs. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote, “Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago!”

He also claimed that interest rates in the U.S. should be notably lower than those in other economies. “We should have the lowest rate of any country in the World, like ‘the old days,’” Trump declared.

The remarks are part of the Federal Reserve’s deliberations on its next policy move. A better labor market would give the Fed less impetus to keep pushing interest rates even lower, and Trump is arguing that they’ve got to lower even further.

Trump Vows To Place Trade Barriers

Trump also linked the Fed’s monetary policy to the United States’ trade deficit, stating that he would halt trade with countries that run a huge surplus with the United States. “Lower the rate or I’ll stop trading with countries with which we have a deficit,” he wrote.

He said that lower interest rates would give the United States an edge and that interest rates were better than tariffs. Trump also urged the Fed to “be patriots for a change,” noting that high interest rates give an unfair advantage to the United States.

Bitcoin Drops Below $80K After Jobs Data

Bitcoin rallied off the charts in response to the positive employment data. BTC opened at $82,262.21 before reversing direction after the payrolls release, eventually hitting an intraday high of $82,262.21. The BTC price dropped from approximately $81,600 to almost $79,800 and is still below $80,000.

The decline resulted in a number of leveraged liquidations. Over the course of four hours around the release, over $251 million in crypto positions lost their value, with around $216 million in long and $35.14 million in short positions going belly up.

If traders lower their expectations for rate cuts by the Fed, the robust jobs report might continue to put pressure on Bitcoin. Now, prediction markets show 54% odds of Fed rate hike in the September 15-16 FOMC meeting.

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