Trump says he wants the Fed independent, then blames it the moment it acts that way.

…(cont) Second answer, same week. Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee — twelve members, the wire says, and it was unanimous — raised the benchmark rate a quarter point, to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent. First hike since 2023. Is that the board doing what it wants? Is that what "independent" is supposed to look like, the word doing exactly what it says on the label?

Because here's what happened right after. Same Wednesday, the president lands in North Carolina, reporters ask him about it, and I've got this quote too: "I'm relying on Kevin, but he's got a very tough board." "A board that was put there by a lot of other people." Same man. Same word, "independent." One week. First time, does it mean he wants them free to act? Second time, does it mean they acted, and that's on somebody else? I've only got the one board written down here. Is it the same board both times?

I went out to the garage after I read that twice, because that's where I go when I've got a question I can't answer standing still. There's a fan belt in my toolbox I've been meaning to put on the car since spring — I told the fella at the shop three separate times, do what you think's right, I trust your judgment, and three separate times I came back and asked him why the car sounded the way it sounded, like it was his tough board doing it and not his hands. Is that fair to the man? I don't know. I'm asking.

Peter Navarro, the White House adviser, called the hike "a bad decision." I've got that quote too. Bad for the number? The number's 3.75 to 4 percent — that's arithmetic, and arithmetic doesn't take sides. So bad for somebody. Who pays a quarter point — the fella still financing the car, or the fella who already owns his outright? I go stand in the bank line most Fridays and look at the rate on the sign, and I think about 2006, when this same bank raised its rate the seventeenth time running, and the Dow closed up over 215 points that same day. Did somebody think that one was fine, too? The market did. I'd like to know if it's the same somebody, twenty years apart.

The Hill had this coming — wrote it on the 11th of the month, before any of it happened, that inflation was running stubborn and a hike looked likely. So did the board surprise anybody, other than the man who told them to be independent? The president wants rates now at "1 percent or less." Not two. Not three. One, or less. Same week he's praising Kevin Warsh and blaming the board instead.

Oh — one more thing, before you go. That "very tough board" he mentioned, the one put there, he says, by other people — does anybody in any of these stories say who's supposed to bring the number down to one percent instead? Or is it just the one board, independent right up until the week it acts like it?