Trump attacks the Federal Reserve, Powell against the economy, GM and rate hikes

President Donald Trump has continued to point finger at the US Federal Reserve for all the bad economic news during an interview with the Washington Post released Tuesday.

The president attributed to Fed interest rate hikes the recent stock market swings, as well as the large round of layoffs and the announcement of the closure of General Motors' factories, according to The Post .

"I'm doing business and I'm not accommodated by the Fed," said Trump. "They make a mistake because I have an instinct, and my intestine tells me more sometimes than someone else 's brain can ever say to me. "

Trump also took the opportunity to whistle again Fed Chairman Jerome "Jay" Powell.

"So far, I'm not even a little happy with my selection of Jay, not even a bit," said the president. "And I do not blame anyone, but I'm just telling you that I think the Fed is far from the base with what it's doing."

The Fed began a cycle of rising slow and steady interest rates in December 2015, long before Trump came into office, due to the relative strength of the US economy.

But since the stock market began to stumble in recent months and the economy has shown signs of tension, Trump has criticized rate hikes as a source of America's economic problems. The president even went so far as to call the rate hikes of the Fed "loco" and said in an interview Tuesday that "the Fed is a bigger problem than China."

Trump also singled out Powell several times for continuing to support rate hikes. In fact, the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, would be behind Trump's anger because Mnuchin had supported Powell during the selection process.

Although the equity market's unfairness is due to various factors, one of which is rising rates, GM's announcement does not seem to be tied. The automaker announced that four US plants in three states would be inactive due to declining demand and industry trends that were moving away from products made in these plants.

Trump's attacks spawn fears decades old

Trump's attacks on the Fed are generally of concern to economists and other market watchers, as the abuse is reminiscent of President Richard Nixon's pressure on Fed Chairman Arthur Burns.

Read more: Trump does not stop hitting the Fed, calling the central bank "loco" and "crazy." An ugly economic lesson drawn by the Nixon administration shows why his critics are so worrying

Although this was done privately, Nixon lobbied Burns to keep interest rates low before the 1972 election so the economy continued to rage. In basic economic theory, the Fed's interest rates make money borrowing more expensive for businesses and consumers. This helps achieve the Fed's goal of keeping inflation at a low level, but also slows economic activity.

Nixon managed to convince Burns to keep his rates low, which contributed to the disastrous stagflation of the 1970s and harmed the US economy in the long run.

Although Trump's pressure may not be as delicate as Nixon's – and may in fact be turned against him – the specter of the incident still hangs over the interactions between the president and the Fed.