More Americans trust the opinions of the Federal Reserve on the U.S. economy than President Trump, a new poll has found.
When asked who they trust more to set economic policies for the U.S., nearly twice as many respondents in the latest Economist/YouGov poll released this week said the Federal Reserve board. While 45 percent said they would trust the Fed more, 26 percent said they would trust Trump more. Another 29 percent said they weren’t sure between the two, the poll found.
Trump has been feuding with the Fed and chairman Jerome Powell for much of his second presidency in a dispute largely over interest rates.
The president has repeatedly highlighted renovations at the Federal Reserve’s downtown headquarters to argue Powell is wasting money, and he has pushed for the ouster of board of governors member Lisa Cook. This has been largely seen as a maneuver to get Powell and others on the Fed board to resign.
However, most Americans surveyed, 59 percent, said they trust the Fed’s decision-making on interest rates, and more than half, at 52 percent, said they trust the Federal Reserve board to help guide the U.S. through economic uncertainty.
The poll found that 57 percent of Americans are at least “somewhat” familiar with what the Fed does. Sixty percent said that its primary role is determining U.S. monetary policy.
The Economist/YouGov poll surveyed 1,691 adults Aug. 29 through Tuesday. The margin of error is 3.4 percentage points.
