Ex-Trump Economic Adviser Admits on CNN He ‘Probably Would Have Voted’ for Interest Rate Hike

Steve Moore, a former economic advisor to President Donald Trump, admitted he would have voted for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike that went through on Wednesday, despite Trump repeatedly pushing for lower rates.

Moore joined CNN on Wednesday and revealed he would have backed the Federal Reserve’s vote to raise interest rates for the first time in more than three years. They also indicated another hike will be coming before the year is out.

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 on Wednesday to increase its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point. They also said in a statement that inflation remains “elevated” and the hike is part of a strategy to bring back “price stability.”

Moore said:

So much for the idea that that Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh would not be independent. Obviously, he’s pretty independent in when his first move is to do exactly what the president didn’t want him to do. As you may recall, Boris, you know, I was nominated in Trump’s first term to be on the Federal Reserve board. I didn’t make it through that. But if I were on the board, I probably would have voted for this rate hike. Tough decision.

Inflation, he added, is being driven by one thing: inflated oil prices due to the ongoing Iran war.

Moore said:

A rate hike isn’t going to bring, you know, the oil price down because that’s a global thing. If, if, if we can get that oil price down from right now it’s at about $105 a barrel last time, if we can get it back down to, say, 70, you know, then then we’re going to conquer inflation. If you look at the report that just came out last week on consumer prices, it was pretty interesting. All the energy prices, like gasoline and electricity prices were way up, but all the other prices were pretty subdued, so it’s all being driven by the Middle East.

Trump has repeatedly called for interest rates to be lowered. In a recent Truth Social post, the president declared he would “stop trading” if rates did not go down.

High interest rates continue as the U.S. national debt rises, passing $40 trillion in August, requiring a monthly $96 billion interest payment.

“A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE – IT’S A BETTER CREDIT…Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like ‘the old days,'” Trump wrote.

Watch above via CNN.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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