“I will say this: We’re normalizing money, and that’s good,“ President Donald Trump said. “But I think we don’t have to go as fast. I want to be able to pay off debt.“ | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Finance & Tax Trump says Fed hiking rates too fast, but he’s staying out of it

President Donald Trump took aim once again at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, arguing that the central bank could be hiking interest rates more slowly but saying he has not spoken to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell about it.

“The Fed is doing what they think is necessary, but I don’t like what they’re doing,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn, referring to the Fed’s series of rate increases.


"The numbers that we’re producing are record-setting,” he said. “I don’t want to slow it down even a little bit, especially when you don’t have the problem of inflation, and you don’t see that inflation coming back. Now, at some point you will, and you go up. I just don’t think it’s necessary to go as fast.”

But Trump said he hasn’t discussed his feelings directly with Powell. “I like to stay uninvolved,” he said.

“I will say this: We’re normalizing money, and that’s good,“ the president said. “But I think we don’t have to go as fast. I want to be able to pay off debt.“

The central bank hiked rates again last month for the third time this year and is expected to do so once more before the end of 2018, part of its effort to bring rates back up to a more normal level after nearly a decade of boosting the economy with easy money.

