US President Donald Trump has stepped up attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying he may regret his appointment when asked about any circumstances that could make him dismiss the head of the central bank.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview yesterday that he was deliberately sending a direct message to Powell that he wanted to cut interest rates even as he acknowledged that the Fed is an independent entity.
Trump avoided answering a question about the circumstances that would lead him to dismiss Powell and said I do not know.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed for raising interest rates, amplifying its tone in recent weeks, as in the last week he called the Fed the biggest threat and blamed it on the stock market's sell-off.
So far, the Fed has raised interest rates three times this year by a quarter percentage point at a time bringing it to 6 the number of hikes since Trump took power.
Trump's criticism is a departure from the practices of his predecessors. For more than two decades, US presidents have avoided commenting on Fed policy as a way to demonstrate the independence of the institution.
