(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign blasted Donald Trump for criticizing the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut in four years, keeping the focus on jockeying over the economy before the presidential election in November.
Trump, the Republican nominee, weighed in within hours of the Fed’s 50-basis-point cut on Sept. 19, calling it “a political move” and saying a 25-point cut would have been appropriate. He has previously suggested the independent central bank should come under some degree of executive branch control.
In a campaign memo obtained by Bloomberg News, Harris’ senior policy adviser Brian Nelson called Trump’s response “reckless” and said he’s “arguing that Americans’ mortgages, car loans, and small business loans should have higher interest rates because he believes that good news for tens of millions of American families might not be good politically for himself.”
Trump claimed, without evidence, on Sept. 19 that the Fed’s decision was politically motivated “to try and keep somebody in office,” though he didn’t say in the Newsmax interview that he supported higher interest rates. The White House called the interest-rate cut “welcome news.”
The Harris campaign’s messaging preceded a scheduled speech by Trump on Saturday in North Carolina, where he’s expected to address economic issues that are a liability for Harris, including the highest US inflation in four decades during President Joe Biden’s term and polls that persistently favor Trump to handle the economy.
In contrast, Nelson argued that Trump “would impose an economic disaster as president,” pointing to forecasts that higher tariffs and continued tax cuts for the wealthy could have inflationary effects.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.