"She’s obviously political," Donald Trump says of Janet Yellen. | AP Trump slams Yellen for 'doing what Obama wants her to do'

Donald Trump on Monday accused Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen of being a political figure who does whatever President Barack Obama wants her to.

The Fed this month could raise its main borrowing rate for the second time in the past 10 years. The Republican presidential nominee, however, argued that the rate will stay at zero.


“Well, it’s staying at zero because she’s obviously political and she’s doing what Obama wants her to do,” Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in a telephone interview. “And I know that’s not supposed to be the way it is, but that’s why it’s low. Because as soon as they go up, your stock market’s gonna go way down, most likely or possibly. And don’t forget, I called Brexit. I did a lot of calling, and what they’re doing is, you know, just it’s — I believe it’s a false market because money is essentially free.”

Trump doubled down on Yellen later in the interview, remarking that she’s keeping interest rates “artificially low” until Obama leaves office.

“I think she’s very political, and to a certain extent, I think she should be ashamed of herself because it’s not supposed to be that way,” Trump said, going on to question the impartiality of government entities, including the Federal Reserve and the Justice Department.

“That’s obviously not possible because Hillary Clinton is guilty as hell and everybody knows it. Any third-rate lawyer will tell you that,” he said. “I mean, it’s obvious. All you have to do is read and watch. So I used to think they were independent. I used to hope that the Fed was independent and the Fed is obviously not independent. It’s obviously not even close to being independent.”

Trump said he bought stock “because it’s like free money.” “The stocks went way up,” he said, before adding that he sold them to avoid a potential conflict of interest before launching his presidential campaign.

The real estate mogul told CNBC’s Joe Kernen that the Fed will keep the interest rate low to leave it up to “the new guy” to raise rates.

“Let’s see what happens when interest rates go up. Now I think they’re keeping them down, and they’ll keep them down even longer, and any increase at all will be a very small increase, Joe, because they wanna keep the market up so that Obama goes out and let the new guy, whoever that new — let’s call it the new guy, OK, because I like the sound of that much better — but that the new person that becomes president, let him raise interest rates or let her raise interest rates and watch what happens to the stock market with that happens, OK?” Trump said.