The Trump administration is more focused on keeping Treasury yields low rather than on what the Federal Reserve does, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
While in the past President Donald Trump has implored the Fed to cut its benchmark rate, Bessent said Wednesday that the current strategy is using the levers of fiscal policy to keep rates low. The benchmark the administration is using will be the 10-year Treasury, not the federal funds rate that the central bank controls, he added.
“The president wants lower rates,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term. “He and I are focused on the 10-year Treasury and what is the yield of that.”