Trump Ordered Cabinet Secretary To Pressure Fed Chair To Cut Rates
Forbes Daily Briefing
Forbes
4.4 • 18 Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
In his new book, one-time Trump cabinet member Wilbur Ross claims the then-president threatened to remove Powell as Fed chairman if he kept raising rates, a policy that not only affected everyday Americans but hurt Trump’s personal finances.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Here is your Forbes Daily Briefing for Thursday, August 22nd. |
| 0:05.0 | Today on Forbes, Trump ordered Cabinet Secretary to pressure Fed Chair to cut rates. |
| 0:12.0 | In 2018, Donald Trump was presiding over a booming economy, but he was unhappy. |
| 0:18.0 | Seeking to prevent the economy from overheating, the Federal Reserve, |
| 0:22.5 | led by Trump appointee Jerome Powell |
| 0:25.0 | was slowly raising interest rates. |
| 0:27.6 | At one point, Trump apparently flipped out, |
| 0:30.4 | calling Powell a quote, |
| 0:31.7 | idiot and ordering his commerce secretary |
| 0:34.0 | Wilbur Ross to call the Fed Chairman and get him to reverse course. |
| 0:38.1 | This all according to Ross himself in his autobiography that comes out next month. |
| 0:45.0 | Ross writes, quote, |
| 0:46.6 | President Trump was concerned that rate increases |
| 0:49.1 | with questionable rationale might wreck the economic recovery. |
| 0:53.0 | So he asked me to talk to Powell and get him to reverse course, or at least stop pushing rates up. |
| 0:58.1 | He wasn't kidding. |
| 0:59.4 | As I recall him saying, please call this idiot and explain to him that I will repudiate his |
| 1:03.9 | nomination even though he has been confirmed. As Ross tells it, he pushed back on |
| 1:09.6 | Trump initially, telling him that he agreed Powell's policy was wrong, but that Trump shouldn't, |
| 1:14.3 | quote, threaten to replace him or take some other big action against such an important independent |
| 1:19.4 | agency. |
| 1:20.4 | According to Ross, Trump responded, |
... |
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