Trump defends Fed policy talk, hints at rate-cut push

“I think it’s fine for a president to talk. It doesn’t mean that they have to listen,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday after an event in swing state Pennsylvania.

Trump said he “jawboned” over interest rates with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell during his White House term and “it might have had an effect, it might not have had an effect.”

“A president certainly can be talking about interest rates because I think I have very good instincts,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m calling the shot, but it does mean that I should have a right to be able to talk about it like anybody else.”

High interest rates have intensified focus on decision making at the Fed, as mortgage costs have hobbled would-be homeowners. Vice President Kamala Harris last week unveiled her plan to make housing more affordable by offering first-time buyers $25,000 of down payment assistance.

Trump called the idea “a big mistake” saying it would cause a bigger shortage of housing and raise home prices.

Still, Trump said, “I might do that” when asked whether he would offer anything to prospective house buyers who are struggling to afford a down payment.

Giving the executive branch more input would challenge the longstanding practice of allowing the US central bank to conduct monetary policy — namely, by setting interest rates — independent of political actors. 

Starting during the Clinton administration, presidents of both parties have also refrained from commenting on Fed decisions and interest rates more broadly, to avoid the mis-perception — and market fears — that they were trying influence the central bank. 

Trump’s appearance on Monday is part of a multi-pronged campaign strategy to counter-program Democrats’ coronation of Harris as their presidential nominee, shore up support in vital swing states, but most importantly, lean in on the economy, an issue that polls show is top of mind for voters and where he’s held an advantage over President Joe Biden and Harris for most of the 2024 cycle.

Polls have shown Harris drawing even or surpassing him. Before Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket, a central part of Trump’s campaign strategy had been stirring the nostalgia that voters had exhibited in polls for the pre-Covid-19 economy that he oversaw.

At a press conference earlier this month, Trump said the Fed was a “little bit too early and a little bit too late” in adjusting interest rates and that as a businessman, the former president has a “better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman.”

He declined on Monday to say who he might appoint as Fed chair, saying “It’s far too early.” The former president has previously said he would not reappoint Powell, whose term as chair ends in 2026. Trump has assailed Powell in the past saying the central bank and its chairman have “No guts, no sense, no vision!” 

Harris differentiated herself from Trump on central bank autonomy, telling reporters earlier this month she could not disagree “more strongly” with his view on Fed independence and that as president she would “never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes.”

History shows countries that allow politicians to direct monetary policy face higher inflation. In the US, former President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s pushed the Fed chair of the time, Arthur Burns, into easier monetary policy, triggering a costly inflationary boom-bust cycle.

Campaign Trail

The Republican nominee’s comments on Monday followed a speech on the economy and energy policy during a visit to Pennsylvania, part of a week-long blitz taking him to key swing states in a bid to draw attention away from his opponent, as Harris and her party convene in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. 

Trump is ramping up his campaigning this week with visits also planned to Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona and with him and his surrogates planning daily press conferences — a bid to paint a contrast with Harris, who has not yet held a sit-down interview since becoming her party’s nominee. Harris has pledged to do so by the end of the month. 

Trump visited a machining and fabrication plant in York, Pennsylvania on Monday, highlighting his economic agenda. Republican allies have pressed Trump in recent weeks to focus more on issues such as the economy and immigration — seen as political liabilities for Harris. 

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday showed Harris leading Trump 49% to 45% but the former president is ahead by nine percentage points on the issue of the economy. Trump has vowed to renew expiring tax cuts and institute tariffs on both US allies and adversaries if he returns to power.