Trump calls the Fed chair an ‘enemy’ after Powell said trade war is ‘turbulent’

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING. — President Trump escalated his unprecedented attacks against America’s central bank Friday, calling Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell an “enemy” of the United States that is as bad as China, a tweet that triggered a stock market slide and came minutes after Powell vowed to keep the economy growing.

Powell said Friday that the trade war is a “complex, turbulent” situation and that the central bank will “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,” suggesting another interest rate cut may be coming but not the large decline that Trump has demanded.

“Our economy is in a favorable place,” Powell said, but he added that there are “significant risks” from slowing global growth and the U.S.-China trade fight. China just announced major new tariffs on U.S. products, the latest in an exchange of blows between the two nations that have caused numerous countries around the world to teeter on the verge of a recession.

View the complete August 23 article by Heather Long on The Washington Post website here.