The Wall Street Journal Throws Another Punch at Trump: ‘Layers of Intellectual Confusion’
The Wall Street Journal continued its rhetorical assault on President Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office in a new editorial, this time submitting that Trump doesn’t understand the economics of the supply of money or how to lower prices.
“Does President Trump understand money? Not money as in cash, but the supply of money, the price of money as measured by interest rates, and their impact on inflation?” began the Journal. “The answer would appear to be no after Mr. Trump called for lower interest rates on Wednesday—the same day the Labor Department reported an increase in inflation for the third straight month.”
It continued:
“Interest Rates should be lowered, something which would go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!!” Mr. Trump posted on his social-media site. The layers of intellectual confusion here are hard to parse, especially since higher tariffs will mean higher prices on the affected goods. But perhaps the President wants the public to look elsewhere when assigning blame for rising prices.
Yet if he’s trying to blame the Federal Reserve, which controls short-term interest rates, he has the analysis backward. Rising inflation means the Fed must be more cautious in cutting rates.
The Journal went on to argue that Trump is asking for the “last thing” he should, warn of the risks of “Trumponomics,” and observe that “as a political matter, an inflation revival may be the biggest threat to the Trump Presidency.”
“Mr. Trump was elected as voters reacted to inflation and falling real incomes under Joe Biden. Real average earnings are flat over the last three months as inflation has bounced up,” concluded the editorial. “If this persists, Mr. Trump won’t have a 53% job approval rating for long.”
The newspaper has not been shy about criticizing the president over his first few weeks in office. When Trump stripped John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and other former underlings of their security details, the Journal deemed it a “new low.” It has also called HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “dangerous,” knocked him over his lawsuit against CBS, and been scathing in its analysis of his use of tariffs.
Trump has fired back on that last subject, writing on Truth Social that “The ‘Tariff Lobby,’ headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA.”
Despite the myriad disagreements, Trump welcomed the Journal‘s owner, Rupert Murdoch to the Oval Office earlier this month, where he showered him with praise, but also quipped that he’d “have to talk to him” about the Journal.
