Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has not backed down from his criticism of the Federal Reserve after it cut interest rates by half a percentage point less than two months before the November election.
“It’s really a political move,” the former president said Thursday in an interview with Newsmax.
Trump added: “Most people thought that number would be half that number, which probably would have been the right thing to do. So it’s a political move to try to keep somebody in office, but it’s not going to work because inflation is so bad.”
It’s the second time in two days that Trump has said the central bank could have played politics to try to help the current Democratic administration, which includes rival Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Wednesday, he also pointed to the deeper cut as a sign of a weakening economy that he said was caused by the same Biden-Harris administration.
“I think it shows that the economy is pretty bad to cut it that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics,” Trump said Wednesday at a Bitcoin bar in Manhattan.
Powell — who was promoted to Fed chair in 2018 by then-President Trump but has often found himself at odds with him in recent years — on Wednesday rejected the notion that the Fed was politically motivated in embarking on its first… cut since 2020.
“This is my fourth time at the Fed, and it’s always the same thing,” Powell said. “We always go to this particular meeting and ask, ‘What’s the right thing to do for the people we serve?’”
“We don’t put any other filters in place,” he added.
He also rejected the notion that the cut was due to the weak economy.
“Our economy is generally strong,” Powell told reporters, saying the decision to cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points was instead a way to try to ensure “the labor market remains strong” alongside economic growth.
Democrats have also tried to gain political leverage in the days since the rate cut was announced, with some even pressuring Powell.
In fact, some on the left have suggested that the Fed chairman waited too long to cut rates.
“This rate cut is another acknowledgement that Powell waited too long to cut rates,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote after the news, while adding that she was glad lower interest rates were now in place.
Warren, who had previously called for a 75-basis-point rate cut, added Wednesday that “more rate cuts are needed.”
President Biden said Thursday that the move was “a signal that we’ve entered a new phase of our economy and our recovery.”
Harris added in her own statement that the move is “good news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices [but] I’m focused on the work ahead of us to keep prices down.”
Read more: Trump vs. Harris: 4 Ways the Next President Could Affect Your Bank Account
Trump has been the Fed’s most vocal critic all year on the campaign trail.
He told Bloomberg in June that the cuts were something they “knew they shouldn’t do.” That followed a February interview with Fox Business in which Trump said of the cuts, “I think [Powell] will probably do something to help the Democrats.” »
Then he raised eyebrows last month when he suggested that the president should “have a say” in Fed decisions and that Powell “was way off base.”
Trump’s latest criticism is one he sent this week before the Fed acted.
“They’re going to cut interest rates and everything about policy,” Trump told a crowd in Michigan Tuesday night, ahead of the widely expected taper announcement. He added that the main reason is that “the economy is not good, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do this.”
