US President Donald Trump wasted no time attacking the Federal Reserve after the central bank announced its first US rate hike since 2023 on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh himself was not the target of the attack — Trump reiterated his confidence in him. Instead, Trump went after the entire Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed’s monetary-policy-setting body.

Trump says he trusts Warsh — the attack is aimed at the whole FOMC

Asked by reporters whether he still trusted Warsh after the Fed raised rates by 25 basis points to a new range of 3.75%-4.00%, Trump said yes, but turned his fire on the committee responsible for monetary-policy decisions:

«I trust Kevin, but, you know, he operates inside a very difficult committee, he’s got a board that was put there by other people. And I told him, I spoke with Kevin and I told him: ’You might as well just vote along with the board. It won’t make any difference.’»

Trump added that “the Committee is very hostile, very politicized, and is doing the wrong thing” — meaning, in his view, that “it’s raising rates to make things turn out as badly as possible for Trump.”

Trump to the Fed: rates should be 1% or lower. Cut them fast!

The US president made the comments to reporters before heading to a campaign event in support of Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for a US Senate seat, ahead of the upcoming midterm elections for Congress.

Trump also issued a direct appeal to the Fed on his social media platform Truth Social, writing in capital letters: «LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!»

In the same post, the US president wrote that “interest rates in the United States should be 1%, or even less, because we are by far the country with the best credit rating in the world.”

The day before, the Federal Reserve had raised the federal funds rate, citing the trend in US inflation which, as Fed Chair Warsh himself put it, “is too high.”

Trump renews threat to cut off trade with deficit countries

The US president went on to say that the United States is experiencing “a full BOOM thanks to new investment,” before reviving his threat to cut off trade with every country the US runs a trade deficit with:

«If we stopped trading with every country we run a trade deficit with — which is most of them — we would earn at least $1.5 trillion a year.»

He added a pointed remark: “The word ’deficit’ is nothing more than a fancy term for ’loss.’”

Trump went further still, writing in his Truth Social post that “we are ’carrying’ almost every country in the world, something that cannot go on much longer.”

EUR/USD, USD/JPY and GBP/USD after the Fed, ahead of the Bank of England and Bank of Japan

Wall Street and US Treasuries reacted negatively to the rate hike, while the dollar rose against the euro, touching a seven-week high, with EUR/USD falling as low as $1.1456.

Watch the dollar against the pound too, ahead of today’s rate announcement from the Bank of England (BoE).

Also in focus is the dollar-yen pair, on the eve of the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) own rate announcement. The yen fell to near its lowest level in two weeks against the dollar after the Fed’s announcement, before recovering some ground — USD/JPY was last down about 0.30%, at 155.75.

The euro also recovered, trading little changed at $1.1468, while GBP/USD was similarly flat, hovering around $1.3380.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Laura Naka Antonelli on September 17, 2026 as «Rialzo tassi Fed, Trump a Warsh: «Dovrebbero essere dell’1% o più bassi, tagliateli in fretta». E rilancia la minaccia». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.