Republicans Are Livid About … the Fed Lowering Interest Rates
After months of complaining about the crippling burden of high interest rates and expensive borrowing, Republicans for some strange reason don’t seem too happy that the Federal Reserve has moved to do something about it.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it is cutting interest rates by half a percentage point. It’s the first cut since 2020 and a long-awaited decrease to historically high interest rates.
“We’re trying to achieve a situation where we restore price stability without the kind of painful increase in unemployment that has come sometimes with this inflation,” Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday. “That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think you could take today’s action as a sign of our strong commitment to achieve that goal.”
While the rate cut is expected to bring much-needed relief to consumers, the Republican 2024 ticket is absolutely livid that the bank didn’t wait until after the election to announce the cut.
Trump suggested the Fed may be “playing politics” during an event in New York on Wednesday. “I guess it shows the economy is very bad, to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics,” he said. “The economy would be very bad, or they’re playing politics. But it was a big cut.”
The former president’s backlash is a bit ironic, considering that Trump himself appointed Powell to lead the bank in 2018, and how actively Trump pressured the Fed to manipulate interest rates in his favor during his presidency. Last month, Trump publicly asserted his belief that the president “should have at least a say” in the bank’s decisions, a policy that would directly undermine the Federal Reserve’s independent status.
Now, Trump and his allies are attempting to paint Wednesday’s decision to lower interest rates as election interference by the central bank.
“Why couldn’t this wait until the day after the election,” Stephen Moore, a Trump economic adviser, told Semafor on Wednesday. “Days before the election screams of interference.” Moore later told Sean Hannity that to make the move 50 days before the election “looks like political interference.”
Fox Business host Larry Kudlow also complained that he didn’t understand “why they couldn’t have waited until the day after the election — which would have depoliticized the whole Fed story.”
At a rally in North Carolina earlier on Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump’s vice presidential pick — J.D. Vance — for his reaction to the rate cut. The crowd loudly booed the question, and after several seconds of jeering, a smiling Vance responded that the decrease in interest rates “is nothing compared to what American families have been dealing with for the last three years.”
Right-wing commentators on X, formerly Twitter, are also alleging a conspiracy. The pro-Trump account “End Wokeness,” which boasts over three million followers, wrote that “The Biden-Harris fed just cut rates by its largest amount since the 2008 crash. Either the economy is about to crash OR they’re trying to rig the election.”
Former presidential candidate turned Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “The Federal Reserve cut interest rates massively, just 48 days ahead of the election. Thank god for the independence of the Fed!”
“Funny how some of us last year predicted exactly this would happen,” he added.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) told Fox Business that the rate cut was “clearly political,” and evidence that the “out of control” Biden administration is “politicizing the Fed.”
It’s a lot of bluster from the people who have been attempting to hammer inflation as an election-year issue against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. They’re not really mad that it happened, they’re mad that things actually getting better would hurt their quest for power.
More from Rolling Stone
George Clooney Confirms He Is Feeling 'Hopeful' About the Presidential Election
Teamsters Won't Endorse a Candidate, So Local Unions Back Harris
Trump Grasps for Votes in New York: 'What Do You Have to Lose?'
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.