Donald J. Trump suggested on Thursday that the president should have a say in setting interest rates — a comment that could rekindle fears that the Republican nominee might try to influence the politically independent Federal Reserve if he is re-elected to the White House.
“I feel that the president should have at least say in there, yeah, I feel that strongly,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, referring to the rate-setting process. “I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve, or the chairman.”
Mr. Trump made a habit of loudly criticizing Fed policy while he was in office, often personally attacking Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair.
Mr. Trump elevated Mr. Powell to his leadership position, to which President Biden has since reappointed him. But Mr. Powell angered Mr. Trump by keeping interest rates higher than he would have preferred. Mr. Trump responded by calling the Fed chair and his colleagues “boneheads” and at another point asking in a social media post who was a bigger “enemy,” Mr. Powell or Xi Jinping, China’s president.
Mr. Trump acknowledged that history of animosity on Thursday, saying that he “used to have it out with him.”
While Mr. Trump flirted with the idea of firing Mr. Powell during his time in the Oval Office, it is not clear whether it would be legal to dismiss or demote a sitting Fed chair. In the end, Mr. Trump never tried it. Still, there have been big questions about what might await the Fed if Mr. Trump were to win re-election. Mr. Powell’s term as chair runs to mid-2026.
Some Republicans have proposed ideas that could drastically curb the Fed’s ability to set interest rates independently. But the Trump campaign has been hesitant to endorse such plans, and Mr. Trump soothed some concerns earlier this summer, when he said in a Businessweek interview that he did not plan to fire Mr. Powell if re-elected.
Yet that comment was not absolute: It seemed to imply that he believed he could if he found that Mr. Powell was not setting policy to Mr. Trump’s liking.
“I would let him serve it out especially if I thought he was doing the right thing,” Mr. Trump told the magazine.
And more recently, Mr. Trump has pledged to deliver interest rate cuts if he is president at multiple campaign speeches, even though presidents do not control those.
Fed officials are currently holding interest rates at 5.3 percent, the highest level in more than two decades, as they try to finish their battle against rapid inflation. While officials have signaled that rate cuts are going to begin soon — likely starting in September — borrowing costs might still be high by the time the next president is inaugurated in early 2025.
Mr. Trump pushed incessantly for low interest rates while he was in office, but has made it clear a few times in recent months that he would see any move to lower rates ahead of the election as a political bid to help Democrats. Lower interest rates tend to lift markets and slowly boost the economy.
“He’s tending to be a little bit later on things,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Powell on Thursday. “He gets a little bit too early, and a little bit too late.”