Conservative MSNBC policy analyst explains why Trump has no business being upset with rising fed rates

American Enterprise Institute policy analyst James Pethokoukis blistered President Trump for attacking the Federal Reserve's recent rate hikes, saying the president had no one but himself to blame.


"There's a debate whether they should be going quite this quickly but it's well within the general realm of what you might expect," said Pethokoukis, who then said the hikes were because of Trump's tax cuts.

"The president's really worried that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, well then, perhaps he should not have supported a big bunch of stimulus when the economy probably didn't need it," he said. "That's one reason they're raising the rates, is because of that stimulus."

"Conventional wisdom would tell you it doesn't matter what the president says. Except we are not living in conventional times," chimed in co-host Stephanie Ruhle. "Is the president going to be successful in pushing this narrative out so loud and so repetitive that maybe it will impact the fed?"

"Past presidents have tried to browbeat even, you know, having leaks about the Fed to get the Fed to do what they wanted to do," replied Pethokoukis, but predicted Trump's bullying might backfire, forcing the Fed to raise rates higher to demonstrate their independence. Velshi agreed, recalling previous presidents who fought with the Federal Reserve.

An openly doubtful Ruhle interjected. "I think the two of you are missing one key point that takes us outside of history and precedent," she said. "President Trump is the World Wrestling Federation champion in terms of browbeating and pushing his narrative so hard that it actually exhausts people into doing things."

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