via CNBC:
- Trump used his pulpit before the Economic Club of New York to bash the Fed, a diversion from what many hoped would be a positive speech on trade progress.
- The president claimed that if it weren’t for the reluctance of the Fed, the stock market’s gains since his election would be significantly higher.
- Trump also contended that the Fed should continue to cut interest rates to make the U.S. more competitive in the global market.
President Donald Trump used his pulpit before the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday to bash the Federal Reserve, a marked diversion from what many on Wall Street had hoped would be a positive speech on the progress of trade relations between the U.S. and China.
Instead of highlighting warmer relations with Beijing, Trump criticized the Fed for what he sees as its hesitation to lower interest rates and blamed the central bank for capping gains in the U.S. economy and stock market.
The president noted that since his election, the S&P 500 is up more than 45%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 50% and the Nasdaq Composite is up 60%. But those numbers could be way higher, Trump said, if it weren’t for the reluctance of the Fed.
“And if we had a Federal Reserve that worked with us, you could have added another 25% to each of those numbers, I guarantee you that,” Trump said.
“But we all make mistakes, don’t we?” the president added. “Not too often. We do make them on occasion.”
It wasn’t immediately clear which “mistake” Trump was referencing: His choice to nominate Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lead the central bank or Powell’s preferred course of monetary policy.