President Donald Trump used an exclusive "Meet the Press" interview on Sunday to publicly endorse new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh while pressing his case for lower interest rates, telling moderator Kristen Welker that strong jobs numbers should not trigger a rate increase even as oil and gas prices remain elevated by the war with Iran.

"Kevin is fantastic, and I want him to do whatever he wants," Trump said. "I don't want to have a big influence on him."

The interview, taped Friday at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls, Wis., and aired Sunday, lands days before Warsh chairs his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Markets had begun pricing in the possibility of a rate hike after the May jobs report.

Trump paired his hands-off framing with a pointed argument against tightening.

"We had a great report. We're doing great, and it's unfair that whenever you do great, they want to raise interest rates," he said.

"There's no reason to raise interest rates."

He went further moments later: "The country becomes great. We built the country by doing great and having rates low. What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. I don't want to kill success. We should actually lower interest rates."

The economic backdrop is mixed.

The May employment report showed the labor market adding 172,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate steady, a result that lifted investor concerns that the Fed could move to contain inflation rather than ease policy.

Stocks fell Friday on that news.

The national average for gasoline stands at $4.17 a gallon, up $1.19 since the Iran war began but down from a peak of $4.56.

Warsh's endorsement is a sharp turn from Trump's treatment of former Chair Jerome Powell, whom he repeatedly attacked as "too late" and "a major loser" over Powell's refusal to cut rates.

The Justice Department earlier dropped a probe into the Fed tied to Powell's Senate testimony on the central bank's office renovations.

Powell argued at the time that the inquiry reflected the Fed's insistence on setting policy on its own assessment rather than the president's preferences.

Trump's public deference has limits as a matter of mechanics.

The 12-member FOMC sets the federal funds rate; the chair presides but does not decide alone. Earlier this year, Trump told NBC News that Warsh would not have been his pick if Warsh had signaled he wanted to raise rates, and described the Fed as "in theory" an independent body.

Pressed on whether a rate hike would upset him, Trump praised Warsh personally before returning to his preferred outcome.

"If we do what I'm saying, this will be a beautiful, well-oiled machine like you've never seen before," he said.

The committee's next decision will be the first real test of how Warsh navigates that pressure.