Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 8, 2024.
Joe Raedl | Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he should have a say in how the Federal Reserve sets interest rates.
“At least the president [a] “I have nothing to say there,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “Yes, I feel strongly about it. In my case, I’ve made a lot of money, I’ve been very successful, and I think in many cases I have better instincts than the people who become members and chairs of the Federal Reserve.”
The comments appear to confirm reports published earlier this year by The Wall Street Journal and other publications that advisers close to the former president were considering a range of reforms to the central bank if he were elected in November.
Among the proposals are requiring the Fed to consult with the president when setting interest rates, allowing the Fed to make regulatory changes without the White House’s permission and using the Treasury Department as a watchdog over Fed actions.
During his term in office from 2017 to 2021, President Trump was a fierce critic of Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he appointed in 2018.
“Well, the Fed is a very interesting thing. They get things quite wrong, and he tends to be a little late on things,” Trump said of Powell and his colleagues. “Powell is a little too early, a little too late. And it’s mostly gut instinct, I think, really. I’ve discussed it with him.”
Fed officials often stress the importance of the central bank being independent from political influence, and Chairman Powell has repeatedly said criticism from President Trump or other officials will not influence monetary policy decisions.
Vice President Kamala Harris, President Trump’s Democratic rival, believes the Fed should make decisions independent of the president’s influence, an aide to the vice president told CNBC on Friday.
President Trump has insisted that he and Powell “get along well,” but the reform plans his team is considering include firing Powell when his term as chairman expires in 2026, or at least not reappointing him.
The Fed has been criticized for waiting too long to raise interest rates when inflation began to spike in 2021, and is now facing similar criticism for not cutting rates even as inflation has been steadily declining.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for example, has repeatedly called on the Fed to cut interest rates.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 5.25 percentage points between March 2022 and July 2023 to curb inflation. Markets widely expect the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in September. President Trump has generally supported lowering interest rates and frequently criticized the Fed for raising interest rates in 2018.
