President Donald Trump on Tuesday ripped the Federal Reserve after a weak manufacturing report and congratulated the People’s Republic of China on its 70-year anniversary even as Republicans condemned it.
FED
After a survey showed the U.S. manufacturing sector posted its biggest contraction in September since the end of the 2007-2009 recession, Trump said the Fed and its Chairman Jerome Powell were the culprit.
Read: U.S. manufacturers experience worst month since 2007-2009 Great Recession, ISM finds.
He said Powell and the central bank “have allowed the Dollar to get so strong, especially relative to ALL other currencies, that our manufacturers are being negatively affected. Fed Rate too high. They are their own worst enemies, they don’t have a clue. Pathetic!”
Trump has pressed the Fed to cut rates aggressively. Lower interest rates can weaken the value of a country’s currency. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.04%, a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, is up more than 3% for the year to date.
See: Why the U.S. dollar is cementing its role as a global safe haven.
U.S. stocks SPX, -1.60% dropped sharply in the wake of the ISM report.
CHINA
Trump tweeted a congratulatory message to China and President Xi Jinping, without mentioning trade, human rights or other issues.
Republican senators including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took a different approach. “On the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, we should pause to recognize the many millions of lives lost under Chinese communist rule,” wrote the Kentucky Republican in a statement. McConnell also said he condemned violence against democratic activists in Hong Kong, where a protester was shot by a police officer on Tuesday.
IMPEACHMENT
With no public events scheduled, Trump continued to attack the impeachment inquiry against him and again called for action against House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“Why isn’t Congressman Adam Schiff being brought up on charges for fraudulently making up a statement and reading it to Congress as if this statement, which was very dishonest and bad for me, and was directly made by the President of the United States?” Trump said about the California Democrat.
Schiff characterized a call between Trump and Ukraine’s president in a way he said was meant partly in parody during a House hearing last week. The call is at the heart of Democrats’ impeachment probe.
Now read: Trump campaign spent as much as $2 million on impeachment ads on Facebook, researcher finds.