President Donald Trump wrapped up the weekend as he started it, jawboning the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates at a time when he may be sizing up his two latest picks for Fed governor as successors to Chairman Jerome Powell.
If the Fed “knew what it was doing” it would cut rates, Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, to return to Washington after a weekend at his nearby golf club. Fed policy is putting the U.S. at a disadvantage versus Europe and suppressing gains in the stock market, Trump said.
Sunday’s comments came after Trump said on Friday that the central bank “doesn’t have a clue” and was “our most difficult problem.”
The fresh criticism is consistent with ideas that the president is laying the groundwork to replace Powell when the chairman’s term is up in 2022, assuming Trump is re-elected, or will attempt to do so earlier if the Fed doesn’t bend quickly enough to his will.