Fox News’ chief political analyst Brit Hume blamed President Donald Trump’s seesawing economic policies for the stock market’s “turbulent” state Monday.
In a conversation with network host Bret Baier, Hume reflected on the stock market’s steep tumble on Monday, plus the dollar falling to a three-year low, and reiterated that it’s nearly impossible for investors to have a “peaceful, easy feeling” about the economy when Trump’s movements have been so volatile.
“There isn’t much that’s happening right now, Bret, that’s going to give investors a peaceful, easy feeling about the state of the economy, and therefore the state of the markets, which have been turbulent, but mostly down now since the announcement of the tariffs, what, a month ago,” Hume said.
On Monday afternoon, the Dow fell 971.82 points, or 2.48 percent, the S&P dropped 2.36 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.55 percent.
“And now the president is just calling for the departure of Fed Chairman [Jerome] Powell, who, whatever you think of him and whether you think interest rates should be lower as the president certainly does or whether you don’t, that’s another element of instability in the current financial outlook,” Hume added.
Trump, who has repeatedly been criticizing Powell for not lowering interest rates to cushion the blow of his tariff impositions, slammed the federal reserve chairman in a Truth Social post again Monday and reinvigorated a public pressure campaign against him.
“There can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” Trump wrote. “Powell has always been ‘Too Late,’ except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected. How did that work out?”
“Instability is something that markets do not like, and economies really don’t either because when people are uncertain about what the future lies, they are hesitant to invest, and to hire, and to do the things you need to have an economy go and grow which is obviously what the president is seeking,” Hume continued. “He may win in the end But trade wars don’t have a lot of history of working out very well for all-any party who’s involved in it. So I think that’s where the worry lies, now compounded by a fight with the Fed.”
Though most of Trump’s tariffs have paused for 90 days, a 145 percent tariff on China still remains in effect.
The post Top Fox Analyst Points Finger at Trump for ‘Turbulent’ Economy appeared first on The Daily Beast.
