New York (CNN Business) The Federal Reserve shouldn't cut interest rates, because that only enables President Donald Trump to pursue a mistaken trade war, according to Bill Dudley, a recent top official at the central bank.

"This manufactured disaster-in-the-making presents the Federal Reserve with a dilemma: Should it mitigate the damage by providing offsetting stimulus, or refuse to play along?" wrote Dudley, the former president of the New York Fed, in an opinion column on Bloomberg Thursday.

"If the ultimate goal is a healthy economy, the Fed should seriously consider the latter approach," he added.

Dudley served as vice chairman of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee from 2009 through 2018, starting during the height of the Great Recession. He wrote that he understands the Fed's desire to say out of politics and to respond to the economic conditions as they exist. But the column said the Fed will do more long-term damage to the economy if it gives Trump what he wants with lower rates.

"What if the Fed's accommodation encourages the president to escalate the trade war further, increasing the risk of a recession? The central bank's efforts to cushion the blow might not be merely ineffectual. They might actually make things worse," he wrote.