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Our headline is facetious but President Donald Trump ratcheted up the war of rhetoric with Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell. The president has never shied away from criticizing the Fed’s policy, and lately he has demanded the Fed cut rates by one percentage point. Trump has claimed he could remove Powell, though the legality of this is suspect.

Last week, the president compared him unfavorably with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, and reiterated his view that the Fed is hurting the U.S. economy by allowing the dollar to get too strong. “We should have Draghi instead of our Fed person,” Mr. Trump said in an interview Wednesday with Fox Business Network. “Mr. Powell “is not doing a good job….He has to lower interest rates for us to compete with China.”

My view is that the uncertainty that this creates isn’t particularly good for stocks. The Fed was created to be independent. Perhaps the president should have selected his nomination for chairman more carefully.

In a speech Tuesday, Powell pushed back, sort of, citing the central bank’s decades long independence. But then he noted the Fed might nevertheless cut interest rates soon. Well, OK. Powell’s in the uncomfortable position of possibly having to cut rates for economic reaso...

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