“ ‘I hope the people over at the Fed will read today’s Wall Street Journal Editorial before they make yet another mistake. Also, don’t let the market become any more illiquid than it already is. Stop with the 50 B’s. Feel the market, don’t just go by meaningless numbers. Good luck!’ ”

Read the room!

That is what President Donald Trump is imploring the Federal Reserve to do after the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped more than 1,000 points over the past two sessions.

The 45th president’s second Fed-directed tweet in two days comes just as the Jerome Powell-led central bank is preparing to commence its last — and arguably most important — rate-setting gathering of 2018.

Trump’s Tuesday tweet references an opinion piece by The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board that encourages monetary policy makers to pause amid a litany of apparent signs that its efforts to normalize interest rates from crisis-era levels are being felt far and wide.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.19% racked up its second consecutive 500-point plunge, pushing it back to its lowest level since March 23. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.36% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.29% closed at their lowest levels since autumn of 2017, while the Russell 2000 index RUT, +0.02% of small-capitalization stocks entered a bear market, typically defined as a drop of at least 20% from a recent peak. All three of the main stock indexes are in correction, defined as a decline of at least 10% from a recent apex.

It is the worst start to a December trading stretch — statistically a seasonally bullish period for stock markets — since 1980.

Against that backdrop, the WSJ’s editorial board writes: “The right answer is to ignore the politics, inside and outside the Fed, and follow the signals that suggest a prudent pause in raising rates at this week’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.”

The implication is that Powell, who has been harangued by Trump over the past several months, cannot be seen apparently cowing to the president’s early criticisms that the Fed is moving too fast and furiously with its rate-hike plans.

A December rate increase by the market is expected, (with futures indicating about a 72% likelihood of a rate increase on Wednesday, according to CME Group data), but the outlook for 2019 is of paramount importance for investors in gauging how hasty Powell & Co. will be with their plan to normalize rates and trim the Fed’s bloated balance sheet from crisis-era levels.

Since beginning the shrinking process in October 2017, the Fed has trimmed its bond portfolio by around $365 billion to $4.14 trillion.

Read: Wall Street says Fed’s ‘quantitative tightening’ program could end much sooner than Powell has flagged

Trump’s call to “Stop with the 50 B’s” may be a reference to that asset-portfolio reduction, which was set to reach a pace of $50 billion a month until the central bank decides its holdings have reached an appropriate amount level.

That reduction of assets also can have the effect of tightening monetary policy, according to some experts.