Trump Accuses Yellen of Trying to Improve the Economy Through Monetary Policy

By Eric Levitz

On Monday, Donald Trump said that Janet Yellen is keeping interest rates low so that the stock market won’t crash — and that she should be “ashamed of herself” for doing so.

“She’s obviously political and doing what Obama wants her to do,” Trump said of the Federal Reserve chair on CNBC, before explaining that the central bank would not raise interest rates because it didn’t want the economy to implode on this president’s watch.

“They want to keep the market up so Obama goes out and lets the new guy … raise interest rates — or her raise interest rates — and watch what happens to the stock market,” Trump said.

There are a few strange things about this analysis. Vox’s Matt Yglesias highlights the most obvious: