With significant drops in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and broad-based stock market indexes, President Trump said markets are in a “correction,” and decried the Federal Reserve’s recent rises in interest rates and signals for more to come. The Fed has “gone crazy,” he said.
In comments to the press in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump said, “I think the Fed is making a mistake. They’re so tight.” He noted of today’s market, “It’s a correction that we’ve been waiting for, for a long time.”
Just two hours before, CNBC reported that an unnamed senior White House official told its correspondent that, “This is a bull market correction. It’s probably healthy. This will pass and the US economy remains strong.”
Trump’s remarks, nearly unprecedented for a U.S. leader, may roil markets further in retreat on the heels of hefty tariffs imposed on aluminum and steel imports from much of the world, and about half of U.S. imports from China. Presidents rarely comment on either short-term rises or drops in the stock market, though some have boasted about a record highs.
Despite an agreement on a revised North American trade deal, still to be debated and ratified by legislatures in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., investors remain jittery both about the costs imposed by trade wars and about political instability around the globe.