You have to admire Donald Trump.

Not only did he win the presidency of the US against long odds, but also now he’s moonlighting as the unofficial chairman of the Federal Reserve.

President Trump didn’t actually take over the Fed job, but he might as well have. On Wednesday, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was testifying before Congress about monetary policy, I could swear he was sitting on Trump’s lap with the president pulling his strings and putting words in his mouth.

If Trump reads what I just wrote, he’d be pleased. But having the Fed chairman as the president’s puppet isn’t something we should be happy about.

What Powell said to members of Congress was exactly what Trump wanted to hear — that “crosscurrents” around the world would probably cause the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a quarter of one percentage point at the end of July.

Oh, yeah!

And rates were going to be cut even though the economy was doing just fine — except for, ya’ know, those crosscurrents.

Trump has been badgering the Fed to cut rates since the beginning of the year.

To justify the rate cut that is probably coming, Powell needed to cite some things that weren’t going right in the world. (And, by the way, there are always some things not going right in the world.)

Powell chose uncertainty over Brexit (Britain’s divorce from the European Union), the complex, never-ending trade talks with China, high debt levels in the US (also never-ending), economic weakness in other countries, and the fact that inflation in the US isn’t high enough.

Inflation that’s not at the Fed’s optimum level of 2 percent implies that something isn’t right with the economy.

Because if the economy was all right, people would be spending so much money that inflation would pick up.

This last thing about inflation always makes me chuckle because you can manipulate price data to show whatever you want by excluding items from the calculation, fidgeting with quality comparisons and just plain lying.

Anyway, Powell made it pretty clear that a rate cut will probably be coming later in July despite the fact that the most important number that the US produces — the monthly employment report — showed that the economy was steaming ahead in July.

When it was implied that the job market was “hot” on Wednesday by one of Powell’s questioners, the chairman pushed back. “To call something hot, you need to see some heat,” Powell said, adding that wages were not yet in the hot category.

And what about that impressive increase of 224,000 new jobs in June that was just announced? Powell said it wasn’t going to sway the Fed.

Here’s the irony in what happened Wednesday as Powell was addressing the House Financial Services Committee, which is chaired by Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and one of Trump’s staunchest critics.

As Powell was giving a broad hint that he’d comply with Trump’s orders to lower interest rates, borrowing costs were actually rising in the financial markets. And a very nice stock market gain that sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index temporarily past 3,000 for the first time became just a small gain by the time Powell’s testimony ended.

Powell said just what Wall Street and Trump wanted to hear, but the reaction was muted.

There’s a habit on Wall Street to “sell the news.” That means once something that is highly anticipated actually happens, traders sell stocks. And that may very well be what happened on Wednesday.

Or, it could be that the financial community was finally concerned that Powell didn’t look like the independent central banker that he is supposed to be and instead looked like a stooge for the Trump administration.

So, on July 31 — after a two-day policy meeting — Powell will likely cut the Fed funds rate to 2 percent from 2.25 percent, which is a quarter percentage point lower than it now is.

And that will come days after the US Commerce Department announces the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2019. The consensus is that GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.5 percent to 2 percent in the April through June period, which is down considerably from the 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter.

But here’s the best part of what happens next.

Two days after the Fed’s likely interest rate cut — on Aug. 2, to be precise — the Labor Department will release the July employment report.

The Fed isn’t supposed to be tipped off to the contents of that report, but we all know that it will be.

And if job growth in July was as strong as it was in June — and rates are still cut — people are going to wonder what’s going on with the Fed we used to know.

The excuse will again be crosscurrents. GDP weaker, jobs good.

As my longtime readers already know, the monthly jobs report is a crap shoot.

But what’ll be in the pot of that game of craps will be something very precious — a central bank that doesn’t have to listen to the politicians.