Trump's Fed Chair Hikes Rates, Defying White House
Trump's Fed Chair Hikes Rates, Defying White House
The News
Kevin Warsh, the Federal Reserve chairman installed by President Trump, presided over a unanimous vote this week to raise interest rates — the opposite of what the president has spent months publicly demanding.
The Guardian reports the decision came "despite intense campaign from White House" pressure for cheaper money.
MSNBC frames the vote as an early and relatively easy test for Warsh, with harder ones ahead.
Timeline
Trump, who has long lobbied for lower interest rates, pressed the Fed publicly and through the White House to cut, according to MSNBC and The Guardian.
The Fed, under Warsh, votes unanimously to raise interest rates.
MSNBC, The Guardian and AlterNet publish assessments of Warsh's first major decision and what it means for Trump's economic agenda.
Reactions
The Guardian asks whether Warsh is "the adult in the room" and whether he can calm the US economy, casting the unanimous hike as a show of institutional independence.
MSNBC says the president "has long lobbied for lower interest rates" and that the Fed raised them anyway — an early sign of how Warsh intends to handle White House pressure.
AlterNet, writing from the left, calls the move an "ultimate betrayal" by a "hand-picked Trump appointee" who "just blew up his agenda," arguing that with inflation rising and rates spiking, Democrats have been handed a weapon 47 days before the election.
What's Next
The open question across all three accounts is whether Warsh keeps voting against the president's wishes at future Fed meetings, and whether Trump escalates his public pressure campaign.
AlterNet ties the stakes to the election it says is 47 days away.
More
Coverage of the decision splits along familiar lines: center-left outlets treat the unanimous hike as evidence the Fed is still independent, while the left's read is that Trump's own appointee has damaged him politically at the worst possible moment.
Poll
Was the Fed right to raise interest rates?
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