WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s running mate for November’s presidential election, JD Vance, on Sunday endorsed the Republican candidate’s proposal that the U.S. president should have a say in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions.
Questioning the independence of the Fed, whose interest rate policy is particularly scrutinized, Donald Trump said Thursday before the press that the American president should at least have “his say” in the matter. The former president had added that as a businessman who had “made a lot of money”, he undoubtedly had “better instincts” than the members of the central bank’s board of governors.
Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union,” JD Vance justified this position by the fact that the decisions of the Federal Reserve are, according to him, eminently “political.”
“I agree with (Donald Trump). This should be a fundamentally political issue. Whether you agree or disagree, America’s elected leaders should have a say in the most important decisions for our country,” the Ohio senator said.
Although the President of the United States appoints the members of the Fed’s board of directors, tradition dictates that the White House does not interfere in its monetary policy decisions so as not to put possible short-term profits ahead of the country’s long-term interests.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Saturday that she strongly disagrees with Donald Trump’s views on the Fed.
“The Fed is an independent institution, and as chair, I will never interfere in the decisions it makes,” she told reporters in Phoenix, Arizona.
(Written by Richard Cowan; Tangi Salaün)
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