By Peter Nicholas and Nick Timiraos 

President Trump, speaking at a fundraising event on Friday, said he was unhappy with the Federal Reserve's recent moves to raise interest rates, people in attendance said.

"He was questioning why it was happening," said one person who attended the event on New York's Long Island. "He made a reference to things going so well, so why bother" raising rates.

Mr. Trump voiced concerns that interest-rate increases would cool off an economy that has been growing at a rapid clip.

He told a joke at the event about the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell.

When he was choosing a new Fed chairman last year, the president said he was told by advisers that Mr. Powell liked "cheap money" and yet quickly started raising interest rates.

"That can only happen to Trump," he said ruefully, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Some of Mr. Trump's political advisers worry that if the Fed continues to raise rates, economic growth and job creation might slow just as the 2020 reelection campaign kicks in.

"It's very difficult for reelection in 2020," one person close to the White House said.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump's criticism is something of a surprise to Fed insiders because Mr. Powell has made clear his views on monetary policy -- and his view of the importance of the Fed's independence -- in public speeches over the last several years.

For much of the past quarter century, the president and White House economic advisers have refrained from commenting on Fed policy, deferring to the central bank's independence. However that wasn't always the case. President Lyndon Johnson clashed with former Fed chairman William McChesney Martin Jr.; Fed appointees of Ronald Reagan challenged Paul Volcker on interest-rate decisions; and George H.W. Bush's advisers clashed with Alan Greenspan.

Last week's fundraiser was the second time in as many weeks that Mr. Trump mused to others about his misgivings with the U.S. central bank. He also highlighted his potential frustration with the Fed's plans to raise interest rates during a dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., two weeks ago, according to one person who attended.

This person said Mr. Trump lamented that he had picked Mr. Powell to run the Fed because he believed the new chairman would be less inclined to raise interest rates, and he said, somewhat in jest, that he hoped Mr. Powell wouldn't disappoint him.

"'I'm depending on this guy and I hope he listens,' that was the tenor," the attendee said. "Overall, the discussion was that he doesn't like higher interest rates."

"What Trump is worried about is that the Fed has, in my own words, growth phobia," said Stephen Moore, a Republican economic commentator who advised Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"That's what the White House is a little bit worried about, that the Fed sees high growth and, 'we have to make sure growth doesn't get too high, '" said Mr. Moore.

Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 20, 2018 13:04 ET (17:04 GMT)