Donald Trump's Fed chair nominee is basically using "common core" math to deceive the president, according to an ex-insider.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Georgia congresswoman who lost her seat after breaking with the president, took aim Sunday at Donald Trump's own Federal Reserve chairman, accusing Kevin Warsh of manipulating inflation measurements to justify cutting interest rates and stay in the president's good graces.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Warsh has been urging the Fed to adopt a lesser-known gauge called "trimmed mean" inflation, which filters out the most extreme price moves, rather than the standard "core PCE" measure. The difference is significant: core PCE showed inflation running at 3.3 percent over the past year, while trimmed mean put the figure at just 2.3 percent.
Greene, whose X account now identifies her as "Former Congresswoman," argued the switch would effectively hide the prices that hurt ordinary Americans most. "Changing the inflation measurement gauge to trimmed mean inflation means the new rate of inflation will no longer measure the volatile high cost items like food and energy that hit Americans the hardest," she wrote.
She compared the approach to a controversial education policy. "It's like switching from traditional math to common core in order to get the inflation rate needed in order to justify lowering interest rates."
Her sharpest line took direct aim at the dynamic between Warsh and the president who appointed him. "Fuzzy math doesn't lower the cost of food and gas," Greene wrote, "even if it allows the new Fed Chair to lower interest rates so he doesn't get called a loser by the president who appointed him."
Trump has repeatedly pressured the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and has clashed publicly with Fed leadership in the past.