Economic adviser denies Trump’s tanking markets to force rate cuts
Despite Trump’s reposting of a video that claimed he’s purposely crashing the stock market, the president’s top economic adviser on Sunday denied that’s his strategy.
On ABC News’ “This Week,” anchor George Stephanopoulos pointed out the post on Trump’s Truth Social platform to White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and asked if he was trying to drive markets down to force the Fed to lower interest rates.
On Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a conference that Trump's tariff policy will hike prices and slow economic growth. Minutes before Powell spoke, Trump posted on Truth Social, "This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates,” and claimed without evidence that political considerations have played a role in Powell's decision-making on interest-rate policy.
Pressed by Stephanopoulos on the post, Hassett said the White House respected the Fed’s independence and denied that Trump was trying to pressure it to lower rates.
“It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age in America for the American worker. That's his strategy,” Hassett said.
