Trump backs off earlier claims that he should directly control interest rates

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump attempted in a new interview to soften previous comments he made about exerting direct control over the Federal Reserve, including setting rates.

“A president certainly can be talking about interest rates because I think I have very good instincts,” Trump said in an interview Monday with Bloomberg. “That doesn’t mean I’m calling the shot, but it does mean that I should have a right to be able to talk about it like anybody else.”

“I think it’s fine for a president to talk,” Trump added. “It doesn’t mean that they have to listen.”

Throughout his presidency, Trump tried to publicly pressure the Fed into cutting rates — a breach of protocol that threatened to undermine the independence of the central bank and its ability to keep jobs booming and inflation low.

Earlier this month, Trump said at a press conference that he’d try to exert direct power over monetary policy.

“I feel the president should have at least a say in there. I feel that strongly,” Trump said at the press conference. “I made a lot of money. I was very successful. And I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve — or the chairman.”

Presidents frequently gripe about Fed policy, but Trump’s public pressure campaign was unprecedented. The Fed is designed to be an independent governing body, free from political influence, so that it cannot be bullied into making emotional decisions that could upset the delicate balance of job creation and low inflation.

The former president said that Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump appointed to the position in 2017, has got the timing of rate moves wrong throughout his tenure. Trump has publicly feuded with Powell for years, frequently posting on social media that he disagreed with the Fed’s decision to raise rates in Powell’s pre-Covid rate-hiking campaign.

Trump told Bloomberg Monday “It’s far too early” to say who he would appoint as Federal Reserve Chair. Trump said in a separate Bloomberg interview last month that he would not fire Powell if he were to be reelected president, “especially if I thought he was doing the right thing.” But Trump has also said he will not reappoint Powell in 2026 at the end of the Fed chief’s term.

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