We also were keen to ask Trump if he thinks the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell will cut interest rates specifically to help Joe Biden (or another Democrat) win the general election. The former President said he does think that is how things will play out.
“Yeah, I think they will,” he said, before taking a light dig at Powell. “I was never a big fan of this guy,” Trump told us, before casually pointing the finger at his own Treasury Secretary. “Steve Mnuchin recommended him, but I was never a big fan.”
Trump, who is prone to interrupting his own answers to share wildly entertaining personal anecdotes, then reminded us of some of Powell’s more dramatic maneuvers during Trump’s administration. “I was jawboning him big league that at one point he dropped the rate by like one point—do you remember that?” BBD Fact Check, again, is pretty much true here.
In 2020, Powell did drop rates a historic 100 basis points. Even before then, the media would complain that Trump seemed to have an ability to alter Powell’s actions by, as Trump would say, “jawboning.” “Federal Reserve Caves to Trump, Dumps Lighter Fluid on U.S. Economy,” read one Vanity Fair headline in 2019. “The president’s psychotic tantrums finally break the Fed—just in time for 2020,” according to the establishment media whiners.
