Former President Donald Trump suggested Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell is too singularly focused on interest rates, while offering what would have been an energy-based alternative economic adjustment in the wake of recent bank failures.
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank – the latter of which featured bank regulation architect ex-Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on its board – failed within the past several weeks.
Some observers said SVB was forced to sell large volumes of T-bonds – which had diminished in value due to spiking interest rates – at a loss to cover marked increases in withdrawal requests from its tech-sector-heavy clients.
"I wouldn't have supported the bailout. The bank would have to get along by itself, and maybe they could have," Trump said Monday.
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"What happened with the bank is interest rates went too high," he told "Hannity."
Trump criticized Powell – whom he nominated to replace current Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen as Fed chair – saying that he "had his own situation" with him and had to proverbially "beat the hell out of him."
"I was not a big fan of Powell. He was recommended by some people [for Fed chair]. I didn't like him. He's too interest-rate-happy."
While Powell's roadmap to quelling the inflation crisis has been focused on rate hikes, Trump offered an alternative solution he suggested would have just as much of a wide-ranging effect on U.S. markets that could lower the temperature.
"What you do is you get the oil prices down. That's bigger than interest rates – The only thing."
Trump went on to criticize SVB for its reliance on 10-year bonds as investments:
"They stupidly bought long-term Treasuries," he said, going on to also call out his presidential successor.
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"Those Treasuries got crushed because Powell keeps raising interest rates. But that's up to Biden. He's going to have to worry about that himself."
Trump later noted that America was about to become energy-"dominant" if his policies had stayed in place when Biden ripped away the Keystone pipeline and curtailed U.S. production, hearkening back to the oil-price suggestion he posited.
"I would have done a big number on Powell," he quipped. "He eventually cut [rates during my presidency] so much that it almost caused a problem… because he thought I was going to fire him."
Trump later cited Russia as an adversary both in the energy realm and in general, remarking that criticisms he receives for purportedly being too "close" to the ex-KGB officer are largely unfounded because he was able to "get along" with him instead of spurring him into conflict.
"If this thing isn't solved by the time we have the election, which is possible it won't be – and is also possible we'll be in World War III with these idiots that are doing what they're doing," Trump said, appearing to refer to the Ukraine invasion.
"You could end up in a nuclear world war which will make World War I and World War II look like patty-cakes. This is unbelievable because we have people that don't know what they're doing. But if it's not solved, I will have it solved in 24 hours with Zelenskyy and with Putin."
Trump said he has a "one-day" solution he would put forward if elected that would solve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, saying that he cannot disclose it at this time because then it cannot be used in an official negotiation between the warring countries.
