Trump says GDP would be near 4% and the Dow could be 10,000 points higher if it weren’t for the Fed

President Donald Trump told CNBC on Wednesday that U.S. fiscal growth would have been closer to 4% if it weren’t for the lingering effect of Federal Reserve rate hikes.

“That was a big blip that should not entertain taken place. It should not have happened. But it’s one of those things. But we had Boeing. We had the big strike with General Motors. We had items happen that are very unusual to happen,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview from the World Productive Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The president also suggested that the stock market would be even higher than its already record-setting grands if the Fed hadn’t raised rates so quickly before cutting them three times during 2019.

“Now, with all of that, had we not done the big nurture on interest, I think we would have been close to 4%,” Trump said of the U.S. gross domestic product. “And I – I could see 5,000 to 10,000 details more on the Dow. But that was a killer when they raised the rate. It was just a big mistake.”

The president has repeatedly taken the Fed and its bench, Jerome Powell, to task for raising rates too quickly, in his view. Trump nominated Powell to the role in November 2017, and the Fed brought rates four times in 2018.

The president’s remarks Wednesday echoed those his top economic advisor Larry Kudlow take a run-out powder stole to CNBC on Tuesday, when he predicted 3% growth in U.S. GDP in 2020.

“This is a long cycle, and what you’ve got here in the Trump years is essentially a mini upcycle,” Kudlow said Tuesday. “You’ve go bankrupt from 1.5% to 2% growth. We had it going at almost 4%, then the Fed tightened.”

Manufacturing and trade data released this month proposed the American economy ended 2019 on a strong note. The economy is expected to grow more than 2% in the fourth habitation. That would represent a slowdown from the 2.9% increase in 2018, and 2% growth would still proffer the decade-old expansion is set to continue into this pivotal election year.