{"id":224356,"date":"2026-09-16T07:11:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-and-the-federal-reserve-are-on-a-collision-course-over-interest-rates-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T07:11:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:11:32","slug":"trump-and-the-federal-reserve-are-on-a-collision-course-over-interest-rates-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-and-the-federal-reserve-are-on-a-collision-course-over-interest-rates-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Federal Reserve are on a collision course over interest rates – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: Two of the victims of an NBC Los Angeles chopper crash named as journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump berated Jerome Powell for years as he sought to pressure Powell, then the Federal Reserve chairman, to cut interest rates. So far, he has given a pass to the new Fed chief, Kevin Warsh, whom he nominated this year.
Now, not even four months into Warsh\u2019s tenure, the honeymoon might be over. Trump has ratcheted up his calls for an interest rate cut in recent weeks, setting the stage for a potential showdown after Wednesday\u2019s decision from Fed policymakers.
Warsh faces a \u201ctime to choose,\u201d as economists at UBS put it: Will the Fed hold its key rate steady yet again in the face of rising inflation, or will it increase the rate to battle stubbornly high prices \u2014 and potentially enrage Trump?
Trump adviser Kevin Hassett, chair of the National Economic Council, said he thinks the \u201cpresident will have something to say about it\u201d if the Fed makes a \u201cbig move\u201d with rates. (Hassett was a candidate for the Fed job before Trump picked Warsh.)
\u201cThe president will have an opinion about it,\u201d Hassett told CNBC on Friday<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m sure he believes that there\u2019s plenty of room for interest rates to go down, and he voices that opinion while respecting the independence of the Fed.\u201d
The Fed has not raised interest rates since 2023, when Joe Biden was president and the economy was contending with sky-high inflation. But market odds for an interest rate increase Wednesday were at more than 90% on Tuesday after inflation data for August came in hot at a 3.4% annual clip. The Fed\u2019s target for inflation is 2%.
When Warsh took office in May, Trump said he wanted the new central bank chairman to just focus on the job.
\u201cDon\u2019t look at me, don\u2019t look at anybody, just do your own thing and do a great job,\u201d Trump said at the time. That was in stark contrast with the insults Trump hurled at Powell, whom he nominated to be Fed chair during his first term.
Trump has not insulted Warsh, but he has become more vocal about his desire for a rate cut, once again raising questions about the Fed\u2019s independence.
\u201cI\u2019d love to see lower interest rates,\u201d Trump said at a July 29 White House event. Trump said Warsh was \u201cfantastic\u201d but claimed the Fed\u2019s board was \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201cthey want to keep rates up.\u201d Trump again brought up rates last month, saying: \u201cWe would really like to see interest rates come down.\u201d
He went even further this month. \u201cWe should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world,\u201d Trump said Sept. 4, after the consumer price index report showed inflation was not slowing. Trump complained that higher rates cost the country more on its debt. \u201cWe should be at 1% or a half a percent,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be at 4%.\u201d
Trump continued later in a social media post<\/a>, \u201cA STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE.\u201d The post ended: \u201cHigh interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won\u2019t allow that to happen!\u201d
Several factors are stoking inflation.
Deutsche Bank analysts noted that \u201cforward-looking elements of the inflation picture\u201d have gotten worse. \u201cRecent minutes to FOMC meetings showed the Committee is focused on three forces in particular \u2014 energy, tariffs \/ supply chains, and AI. At least two out of three of these factors points to more elevated inflation pressures\u201d than the Fed faced at its July rate-setting meeting, they wrote.
Since then, the Trump administration has entered a potentially protracted trade war with Canada, which was America\u2019s second-largest source of imports last year. Energy prices have soared back near all-time highs. On Tuesday, U.S. crude oil touched $106 per barrel, and international Brent crude oil traded around $109 per barrel. Gasoline prices remain 45% higher than in February, when the war with Iran started. Diesel prices have reached their highest level ever, putting pressure on farmers and truckers who rely on it.
\u201cThe cost of diesel gets into just about everything,\u201d KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk recently told NBC News.
The expansive AI data center buildout has fueled economic growth while pushing some supply chains to their breaking points. Data in Friday\u2019s inflation reading showed the price of computer software, accessories and related items rising 25.4% over the last year \u2014 the category\u2019s largest increase on record. Consumer technology companies from Apple to Xbox to Amazon have raised some prices as a result.
A rate hike carries risks of its own, according to economists, including Moody\u2019s Mark Zandi. The labor market, for one, is solid, if not spectacular. The unemployment rate is 4.1%, according to August jobs data released this month.
While inflation is high, the effects of Trump\u2019s tariffs and energy shocks from the Iran and Ukraine wars should fade without any help, Zandi wrote on LinkedIn. So, given the current economic circumstances, if the central bank hikes rates, \u201cit must push growth below potential, and that is hard to do without layoffs, rising unemployment, and igniting a self-reinforcing negative cycle,\u201d he wrote.
Tech companies are shelling out hundreds of billions of dollars to buy equipment, build massive data centers and hire developers to support their AI ambitions, while corporations have reaped major profits. The average American, though, has seen wage growth slow to an annual rate of 3.1%, lagging behind the pace of inflation.
\u201cThe challenge is even more complicated because AI-related investment appears to be powering the economy, while the non-AI economy is already struggling,\u201d Zandi said.
Steve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: Two of the victims of an NBC Los Angeles chopper crash named as journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump berated Jerome Powell for years as he sought to pressure Powell, then the Federal Reserve chairman, to cut interest rates. So far, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}