Citadel CEO Ken Griffin to Trump: Don't mess with the Fed

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has a blunt message for President Donald Trump: Stop messing with the Federal Reserve.

Griffin's warning was relayed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Sunday afternoon. It follows a caustic, summer-long campaign from Trump to press the Fed to lower interest rates. He's railed against the central bank for keeping interest rates steady, arguing it's put a fence on economic growth.

The Citadel chief executive said Trump's efforts threaten to severely backfire on him, causing spikes in inflation that undercut the economy.

"The president’s strategy of publicly criticizing the Fed, suggesting the dismissal of governors, and pressuring the central bank to adopt a more permissive stance toward inflation carries steep costs," the hedge fund manager wrote in the op-ed. "These actions raise inflation expectations, increase market risk premiums, and weaken investor confidence in U.S. institutions."

"It is in the president’s best interest for the Fed to be seen as independent — and to act independently," Griffin added. Griffin also said Trump was playing a "risky" game by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month and moving to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

A White House official argued that Trump's policies have produced lower inflation rates compared to the Biden administration. "The President and the financial markets have their view clear that the Fed should respond to this objective fact by cutting rates, delivering needed interest rate relief to American families while supporting economic and employment growth," spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.

Griffin's vocal op-ed amounts to a sharp break from the U.S. business community. Corporate leaders have largely stayed quiet as Trump chips away at the Fed's traditional distance from the executive branch. Though in July, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce came to the central bank's defense in a little-noticed statement.

Other Trump administration officials simply argued Trump was expressing opinions on monetary policy. "President Trump is going to make his views known just like President Biden did," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Fed officials will gather next week for a two-day meeting on Sept. 16 and 17 to decide whether to lower interest rates. Most financial analysts believe the central bank will move to slash borrowing costs, particularly after back-to-back jobs reports displayed anemic growth.

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