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President Donald Trump on Friday called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and denied he’d backed off on a threat to close the southern border, as he headed to Southern California.
CALLS ON FED
Trump told reporters the central bank should cut rates as well as adopt quantitative easing, or bond buying.
“I would say in terms of quantitative tightening, it should actually now be quantitative easing,” the president said. “You would see a rocket ship,” Trump asserted, shortly after the government released employment data for March. The report showed 196,000 jobs added in March and the unemployment rate staying near a 50-year low of 3.8%.
Read: Hiring speeds up as U.S. economy adds 196,000 jobs in March[1].
Read: Why the Fed will swat away Trump’s call for QE4[2]
It was Trump’s latest salvo in his battle with the Fed. The president has said he intends to nominate two governors — Herman Cain and Stephen Moore — and the administration has been defending them amid some skepticism about their being confirmed.
“These are people who like a steady dollar DXY, +0.12%[3] and they don’t believe growth causes inflation,” said National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow on Bloomberg Television.
Read: Why Senate Republicans may turn on Trump Fed picks Moore and Cain[4].
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.07%[5] was up about 32 points in Friday afternoon trade following the upbeat jobs report.
BORDER POLICY
Trump said he didn’t change his mind about closing the border with Mexico, keeping the threat on the table even as he said that country had been “absolutely terrific for the last four days.”
“I may shut it down at some point,” Trump said. He has threatened the closure if Mexico doesn’t help stem the flow of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs into the U.S. But in recent comments he has characterized Mexico as being helpful.
His trip to California is intended to highlight a section of rebuilt fencing that he refers to as border wall.
BIDEN AS POSSIBLE CHALLENGER
Asked about former Vice President Joe Biden, who on Friday joked about physical contact amid allegations of...