Over the past few months, the president has given a number of different reasons why he‘s unhappy with the pace of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike campaign. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Finance & Tax Trump: Fed is ‘biggest risk’ to U.S. economy

President Donald Trump delivered some of his most pointed attacks yet on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday, calling the central bank the “biggest risk” to the U.S. economy.

In an Oval Office interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said Powell “almost looks like he’s happy raising interest rates.”


“Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates,” Trump said. Asked if he regrets appointing Powell, he said it was “too early to tell, but maybe.”

Trump said he didn’t know under what circumstances he might attempt to remove the Fed chairman but added: “I’m very unhappy with the Fed because Obama had zero interest rates.”

The president’s comments came amid another volatile day for the stock market. A couple of weeks ago, when the three major equity market indexes dropped more than 3 percent in a day, Trump said the Fed had “gone crazy.”

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Over the past few months, the president has given a number of different reasons why he‘s unhappy with the pace of the Fed’s rate hike campaign: He wants a weaker dollar to boost exports to help with trade negotiations; he doesn’t think inflation is at risk of getting out of control; and he wants to pay down the national debt. He has also generally said that he prefers low rates.

The Fed has been sticking to steady rate hikes — about one every quarter — in an attempt to support sustained economic growth without accelerating inflation as the near-record expansion continues. New tax cuts and increased government spending are speeding short-term growth, but wage gains are still moving at only a modest rate.

The central bank kept interest rates close to zero for nearly a decade to help the economy recover in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but has been slowly bringing them back to a normal level as the economy has strengthened.