People forget that Jay Powell is not an economist. The Federal Reserve chair was trained as a lawyer, receiving his JD from Georgetown University in 1979. He then went on to work as an investment banker.

Maybe that’s why Powell keeps getting it wrong. He’s not an economist; has he instead become a politician? That’s the view of President Trump, who is pushing Powell to lower interest rates, to no avail.

For the fourth straight month, the Federal Open Market Committee held rates steady, even though many think the time has come to give borrowers a break. Even though the Fed itself is projecting slowing growth and rising unemployment. Their excuse? A jump in inflation, visible so far only to those with an anti-tariff agenda.

In the lead-up to yesterday’s Fed meeting, Trump joked that he himself could do a better job than “stupid” Powell, whom he has threatened to fire.

Why the animus? Check the record, and consider Powell’s latest decision to keep interest rates steady. Remember that the Fed has a dual mandate; it aims to keep inflation around 2 percent as measured by the Personal Consumption Index, and to maintain low unemployment.

Last fall, about six weeks before the presidential election, the Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points, just in time to juice the economy and boost Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming president. Real GDP growth in the second quarter of last year surprised economists by jumping to 2.8 percent, well ahead of the anemic 1.4 percent expansion recorded in the first quarter.

Job growth remained robust for most of the year, averaging 186,000 job additions per month. Employment growth slowed some in the summer, but the economy added 142,000 jobs in August, which was reported before the Fed met in September. Unemployment was

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