AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin President Donald Trump
- President Trump criticized the Federal Reserve again on Friday, saying the central bank does not know what it is doing.
- If the Fed were to lower interest rates, the US "would be like a rocket ship," Trump told reporters.
- Trump has long argued that the Fed should lower borrowing costs to help the US economy grow.
- Read more on Markets Insider.
President Donald Trump's criticism of the Federal Reserve continues.
After the Labor Department reported the US economy added 224,000 jobs in June, a number that Trump told reporters was "unexpectedly good," he said the central bank should cut interest rates.
"We don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing, so it's one of those little things," Trump told reporters at the White House Friday. He said that if the Fed did ease, it "would be like a rocket ship."
Trump has made this argument before. He's long called for lower interest rates to help the US economy grow, and compared the interest rates that have prevailed during his tenure to those President Barack Obama had.
"He paid close to zero interest rates," Trump said of Obama. "I'm paying real interest."
Trump also said that the economy is much better than it's ever been. The recovery from the Great Recession entered its 10th year this week, becoming the longest in history.
For some, that's a sign that the Fed shouldn't play ball and capitulate to Wall Street's expectations of interest-rate cuts. The jobs added in June - the 105th straight month of gains - suggested that the US economy was running just fine, and quelled fears that a disappointing jobs number in May was a sign that growth was beginning to slow.
Still, it is likely that the Fed will soon begin to ease, potentially delivering a rate cut in July. The CME's FedWatch tool puts the probability of a rate cut this month at 100%. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled that he's open to rate cuts to protect the US economy amid trade uncertainties and threats to global growth.
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