President Trump accused China and the European Union on Friday of manipulating their currencies to gain an edge in global trade and escalated his criticism of the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates, saying those moves were putting the United States at a disadvantage.
Mr. Trump appears ready to blame the Fed for trying to slow down a booming economy that he wants to make a centerpiece of the midterm elections. The president’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, along with federal spending increases, have injected new stimulus into an economy that is finally shaking off the postrecession overhang.
In a flurry of early-morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump complained that the Fed’s pattern of rate increases “hurts all that we have done” and that a “stronger and stronger” United States dollar was “taking away our big competitive edge.”
He also doubled down on his trade fight with China, vowing in an interview with CNBC that aired Friday that he was ready to impose tariffs on $500 billion worth of Chinese imports — roughly all the goods China sends to the United States each year.
