‘Fundamentally ignorant:’ Ex-Treasury chief torches Trump's 'downright scary' math skills

Former Treasury Department official Steven Rattner ripped into President Donald Trump for his “economic ignorance” Tuesday in a scathing op-ed published in The New York Times, pointing to what he described as the president’s “foolhardy tariffs.”

“Now we have a president who is fundamentally ignorant of the most basic and incontrovertible economic principles, as evidenced in his latest round of foolhardy tariffs (and in so many other ways),” Rattner wrote.

Trump’s so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ are set to resume on Aug. 7 following a 90-day pause, with the economic impacts already being felt across the American economy — prices have increased, job growth has slowed dramatically and inflation has ticked up. And yet, despite being “told over and over again by economists” that his tariff policy would harm American consumers, Rattner argues that Trump’s actions “reflect no rhyme or reason.”

“Mr. Trump’s ignorance goes far beyond the tariffs-are-a-tax concept,” Rattner wrote. “He believes trade deficits are tantamount to ‘losing’ money to other countries. Losing money is what happens when $100 falls out of your wallet. When you spend $100 to buy new earbuds made in China, you haven’t lost it; you’ve spent it on earbuds.”

Trump’s “economic ignorance,” Rattner argued, extended well beyond his tariff policy. On inflation, which Rattner says Trump “seems not to understand,” the president continues to proclaim there to be “no inflation,” despite inflation ticking up by 2.6% over the previous year.

The federal deficit, which Trump has regularly pledged to reduce, is only projected to increase by a projected $3.4 trillion over the next decade as a result of his signature budget reconciliation bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

And on interest rates, Trump continues to “demonstrate his economic ignorance,” Rattner argued, by continuing to threaten to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move that Rattner characterized as the president’s “potentially most dangerous transgression.”

“Mr. Trump insists that our interest rates are too high and should be as low as Europe’s (2% versus our 4.5%),” Rattner wrote.

“Yet when he pronounces our economy ‘the strongest in the world,’ as he regularly does, he is unconsciously citing one of the reasons for our higher interest rates: Robust economies need higher interest rates to restrain inflation… Mr. Powell’s term is coming to an end next year, and the prospect of Mr. Trump picking his successor is downright scary.”