US dollar sinks to 4-year low as Trump brushes off currency’s slide, Singdollar at fresh 11-year high

NEW YORK – The US dollar sank, deepening a four-day sell-off that sent it to its lowest level since early 2022, after President Donald Trump indicated he was comfortable with those declines.

“No, I think it’s great,” he told reporters in Iowa on Jan 27 when asked if he was worried about the currency’s drop. “I think the value of the dollar – look at the business we’re doing. The dollar’s doing great.”

The US leader’s comments added fuel to what was already the dollar’s deepest drop since his tariff roll-out sent markets into a tailspin in April 2025 and fanned fears that his erratic policy shifts would drive overseas investors to pull back from US assets.

After his remarks, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index hit a new session low, falling as much as 1.2 per cent on Jan 27 as the US currency weakened against all its major counterparts. The dollar struggled to recover on Jan 28, with the index rising 0.2 per cent.

As the US currency extended its slide, the Singapore dollar hit a fresh 11-year closing high of 1.2597 on Jan 27. It was trading at 1.2598 per US dollar at 4.32pm Singapore time on Jan 28.

The Singapore currency has gained 1.7 per cent against the greenback in the past five trading days and is up 2 per cent year to date.

Mr Trump’s comments were seen as giving a green light to traders to sell the greenback, by indicating that the administration favours a weaker dollar to help boost exports.

Mr Win Thin, chief economist at Bank of Nassau, said Mr Trump “invited another round of selling” that will trigger further dollar declines.

“Many in the Trump Cabinet want a weaker dollar in order to make exports more competitive,” he said. They’re “taking a calculated risk. A weaker currency can be nice until things get disorderly”.

Some of the decline in the dollar was driven by an abrupt rebound in the yen since last week, as traders braced themselves for a potential intervention by Japanese officials to prop up that nation’s currency. 

But the dollar’s drop has also been fanned by Mr Trump’s unpredictable policymaking, which has rattled overseas allies and investors: his threats to take over Greenland; pressure on the Federal Reserve; tax cuts that deepened the deficit; and a leadership style that has deepened US political polarisation.

The dollar’s recent drop has come despite a rise in government bond yields and expectations that the Fed is poised to pause its interest rate cuts at its Jan 28 to 29 meeting – both of which would traditionally have been seen as supportive of the currency.

Instead, investors have poured into rival stores of value such as gold, sending prices to record highs, in what has become known as the debasement trade. 

For years, Mr Trump has held competing views on the dollar, touting its strength as a way to preserve an edge in bilateral negotiations while also talking up the benefits of a weak greenback for the manufacturing sector.

“I’m the person that likes a strong dollar, but a weak dollar makes you a hell of a lot more money,” he said in 2025.

On Jan 27, Mr Trump suggested he could manipulate the strength of the dollar, saying: “I could have it go up or go down like a yo-yo.” But he cast that as an unfavourable outcome, likening it to hiring unneeded workers to juice employment numbers and criticised Asian economies that, he said, tried to devalue their currencies.

“If you look at China and Japan, I used to fight like hell with them, because they always wanted to devalue their yen. You know that? The yen and the yuan, and they’d always want to devalue it. They devalue, devalue, devalue,” the US leader said on Jan 27. 

“And I said, not fair that you devalue, because it’s hard to compete when they devalue. But they always fought, no, our dollar’s great,” he added. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS