Trump-tapped Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran broke ranks with the MAGA administration and admitted that the economy is sinking under President Trump.
Miran on Wednesday undercut the president’s rosy view of the economy, pointing out that the labor market has become weaker since Trump took office.
“The economy was weaker in the first half of the year versus where it was last year,” Miran told CNBC anchor Sara Eisen at the network’s Invest in America Forum.
Though Miran, 42, didn’t directly criticize Trump for the issues with the economy, he did blame the weakened economy on factors directly caused by his administration.
“Yes, the labor market continued to weaken in the first half of the year,” he said. “I think part of that was due to uncertainty over policy. We might have had the biggest tax hike in history, so maybe there were firms that were holding off on investing until the tax hike was done.”
Trump has claimed throughout his second term that the economy is booming. Last Thursday, he boasted America has “the best economy we’ve ever had,” despite data showing otherwise and Americans not buying his claims.
He also has declared that he “defeated inflation” despite it being nearly exactly the same as when he took office. In a rambling speech to the UN General Assembly, he claimed “grocery prices are down,” when grocery prices have only gone up under his administration, thanks in large part to his tariffs.
Miran addressed the president’s tariffs in his interview, saying the uncertainty surrounding them spooked investors and slowed economic growth.
“We also had the biggest rearrangement to global trading policy in half a century,” he said. “While those deals were being negotiated and while people were waiting to see where tariff rates would shake out, it wouldn’t surprise me if people held off on making some decisions. I do think uncertainty contributes to some of the weakness we saw in the first half of the year.”
Miran said he felt the “uncertainty” had dissipated until last week, when China announced it would be restricting export controls, a move largely viewed as a retaliatory measure against Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese goods. China’s announcement caused Trump to declare on Truth Social that he would impose a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods. The renewed trade tensions between China and the U.S. have soured Miran’s outlook on the economy.
“There’s now more downside risks than there was a week ago, and I think it’s incumbent upon us as policymakers to recognize that should get reflected in policy,” he said.
Miran and the White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Miran—like Trump—wants the Fed to cut its interest rates, and on Wednesday, he said two more rate cuts “sounds realistic.”
Before joining the Fed board, Miran served as chair on the White House Council of Economic Advisers. In September, the Senate confirmed Miran to the board by one vote. During the confirmation hearings, he alarmed Democrats by saying he would not resign from his position on the White House council but would instead take an “unpaid leave of absence.”
To critics, Miran’s refusal to resign was seen as a sign that Trump was attempting to assert more direct control over the Fed, which, much to Trump’s chagrin, has generally been an independent institution. The president has repeatedly expressed his frustrations with Fed chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates and unsuccessfully tried to fire another one of the board’s members, Lisa Cook.
The post Trump’s Fed Goon Admits President Tanked the Job Market appeared first on The Daily Beast.
