Trump plays down bond market fears, pushes interest rate cuts

President Trump downplayed concerns around the bond market and called for lower interest rates during a meeting with cryptocurrency executives at the White House on Wednesday. 

“No, I don’t think so,” Trump told reporters, in response to a question about whether Americans should be concerned about volatility in the bond market. “Our country is doing so well despite interest rates.”

The president also called interest rates “artificially high.” 

“They raise them for no reason, and you can’t go out to the market when you have a Fed that’s raising interest rates. You can’t say I want to pay 3 points less than what the Fed says you’re supposed to be paying,” he continued. 

“I think we have a very powerful country, and we’re powering through these ridiculous interest rates,” Trump said. 

The president’s comments come after long-term borrowing costs hit their highest levels across the world, including in the U.S., on Tuesday. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond went past 5.3 percent on Tuesday, the highest since April 2007. 

In response, the Treasury Department announced it would double the maximum amount of the country’s long-term debt that it can buy back, marking an increase of $2 billion to $4 billion. The increase will go into effect on Sept. 9. 

The Federal Reserve’s moves on interest rates can have a major impact on bond prices and yields. Trump has long been pushing for the Fed to lower interest rates, but the central bank has given no indication it will. 

During last month’s meeting between the Federal Open Market Committee and the Fed’s Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve appeared to suggest increasing interest rates, with participants arguing that “policy tightening would likely be necessary if inflation did not decline.” 

“A few of the participants who favored raising the target range for the federal funds rate at this meeting judged that doing so would likely help forestall the need for a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening moves at a later stage,” the meeting’s minutes read. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.