Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is not letting up in his criticism of the Federal Reserve following a jumbo-sized half-percentage-point interest rate cut made less than two months before the November election.
“It really is a political move,” the former president said Thursday during an interview with Newsmax.
“Most people thought it was going to be half of that number, which probably would have been the right thing to do,” Trump added. “So it’s a political move to try and keep somebody in office, but it’s not going to work because the inflation has been so bad.”
The remarks were the second time in two days that Trump argued the central bank may have played politics in an attempt to help the current Democratic administration, which includes his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Wednesday he also made an additional point that the bigger cut was also a sign of a weak economy that he claims was brought on by the same Biden-Harris administration.
“I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much assuming that they are not just playing politics,” Trump said at a Manhattan bitcoin bar Wednesday.
Powell — who in 2018 was elevated to Fed chair by then-President Trump but has found himself often at odds with him in recent years — on Wednesday rejected the idea that the Fed had any political considerations in initiating its first rate cut since 2020.
“This is my fourth presidential election at the Fed, and it’s always the same,” Powell said. “We’re always going into this meeting in particular and asking, ‘What’s the right thing to do for the people we serve?'”
“We don’t put up any other filters,” he added.
He also rejected the idea that the cut happened because of a weak economy.
“Our economy is strong overall,” Powell told reporters, arguing the move to cut the Fed’s benchmark rate by 50 basis points was instead a way to try to ensure “strength in the labor market can be maintained” alongside economic growth.
Democrats have also tried to seize the political advantage in the days since the rate cut was announced, with some even putting their own pressure on Powell.
Some on the left, in fact, made the point that the Fed chair waited too long to cut.
“This cut in interest rates is yet another acknowledgement that Powell waited too long to reduce rates,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren after the news, but she added that she was happy that lower rates are now in place.
Warren, who previously advocated for a 75 basis point cut, added Wednesday that “more rate cuts are needed.”
President Biden on Thursday said the move was “a signal we’ve entered a new phase of our economy and our recovery.”
Harris added in her own statement the move is “welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices [but] my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down.”
Trump has been the loudest critic of the Fed all year long while on the campaign trail.
He told Bloomberg in June that cuts are something “they know they shouldn’t be doing.” That came after a February Fox Business interview, where Trump said of cuts, “I think [Powell’s] going to do something to probably help the Democrats.”
Then he raised eyebrows last month when he offered that the president should “have a say” in Fed decisions and that Powell has “gotten it wrong a lot.”
Trump’s new critique is one he telegraphed this week before the Fed acted.
“They’ll do the rate cut and all the political stuff,” Trump told a Michigan crowd Tuesday night before the news came in about the widely expected cut. The underlying reason, he added, “is because the economy is not good, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do it.”