‘The Fed has gone crazy’: Trump rails against Federal Reserve

President
Donald Trump.
Drew Angerer/Getty
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• President Donald Trump said he believes “the Fed has
  gone crazy” amid recent interest rate hikes.
• Trump’s statement comes after stocks plunged on
  Wednesday. 
  The Nasdaq Composite index and
  the Dow Jones dropped more than 4% and 800 points
  respectively.
• The Fed is expected to raise interest rate through the
  end of 2018 and into 2019

President Donald Trump signaled his anxiety about the Federal
Reserve’s plan to keep raising interest rates into
2019 after
stocks plunged on Wednesday.

“I think the Fed is making a mistake,”
Trump said to reporters after landing in Erie, Pennsylvania,
for a campaign rally on Wednesday. “They are so tight. I think
the Fed has gone crazy.”

After the Nasdaq Composite index and the Dow Jones dropped more
than 4% and 800 points respectively on Wednesday, Trump said
“it’s a correction that we’ve been waiting for for a long time.”

“But I really disagree with what the Fed is doing,” Trump added.

The Federal Reserve has already increased rates three times in
2018, and eight times since the global financial crisis. It is
also expected to raise rates again by the end of the year. The
Fed is expected to raise interest rates at least three times in
2019, up from the two hikes that it forecasted in December.

Trump has
previously criticized the Federal Reserve for its
interest-rate hikes and said it did not “have to go as
fast.” His criticism breaks a longtime political tradition.
Presidents normally do not publicly agitate over the Federal
Reserve’s moves in order to avoid the appearance of improperly
influencing markets.