Senators tell Trump to back off Federal Reserve

U.S. senators Jeff Flake and Chris Coons called on President Donald Trump to back off the Federal Reserve.

"We are concerned about your recent comments harshly criticizing the Federal Reserve for its interest rate decisions. If you undermine the Fed’s credibility, you are putting the U.S. economy at risk," the bipartisan duo wrote Trump in a letter sent Monday.

The senators added that they believe the president does not have grounds to remove Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for disagreement over what the Fed's target interest rate should be.

"Never in the 105-year history of the Fed has a chair been removed by the President. In fact, the law prohibits a President from removing a Fed board member, except for cause. Disagreement over interest rates clearly is not justifiable cause," Flake and Coons wrote Trump.

Trump’s criticism of the Fed as "overly aggressive" in raising interest rates has met a chorus of senators on both sides of the aisle telling him to stop bashing the central bank — or at least reiterating the importance of an independent central bank. Trump has tied a recent dip in stock prices to the Fed’s plans to raise short-term interest rates closer to pre-financial crisis levels, the Washington Examiner reported.