President Trump's feud with the Fed is like ‘playing with fire’: Eli Lake

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Special Report With Bret Baier - Monday, December 24

President Donald Trump may be "playing with fire" after he reignited his feud with the Federal Reserve, argued Bloomberg Opinion columnist Eli Lake on the "Special Report" All-Star panel.

On Christmas Eve, the president took to Twitter, declaring that the “only problem” the U.S. economy has is the Fed.

“They don’t have to feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!” Trump tweeted.

Lake, along with conservative writer Kelly Jane Torrance and Washington Examiner commentary writer Tom Rogan, weighed in on the whether Trump’s battle with the Fed is a political present or a lump of coal.

While recessions are often “expected” in cycles of the economy, Lake said Trump was “making things far worse” by threatening to fire Fed chairman Jerome Powell for decisions he makes.

“There’s a reason why we want the chairman of the Federal Reserve to be independent from the president. The temptation is too great to juice the economy for short-term benefit if you’re president and to ignore the long-term or intermediary-term consequences,” Lake told the panel. “So in that respect, once again, President Trump is playing with fire.”

Rogan said that the activity in the stock market had “more to do with some of the president’s more irregular rhetoric and actions than it does with anything the Fed is doing.”

“I think the president would make a very big mistake for his own political interest and the economy’s where he to try to take punitive action against the Fed,” Rogan told the panel.

Torrance said that it is “very clear” that Trump wants to fire Powell, but stressed that everyone is “putting a lot of emphasis on one man.” She also warned of the “volatility” that would trigger if Powell were fired but that eventually the market would “flatten out.”