With Election Day just weeks away and voters still weighing which candidates to support, Federal Reserve officials will have their own decisions to make, namely whether cutting interest rates so close to November will create the impression of political bias.

Fed officials are expected to ease up on rates sometime in September as they begin the process of shifting focus from inflation to the jobs market, which has begun to show some signs of softening in recent weeks. Policymakers have come a long way since 2022, when inflation on groceries and other consumable products was at a nearly 40-year high. But moving in a more dovish direction now could land the Fed on the wrong side of a new Trump administration, even if such a decision makes sense from an economic and policy perspective.

Former President Donald Trump has already gone on the record saying rates should not come down leading up to the election, even if that could help the economy during his first term. He has also said the White House should have some input into what the Fed does with monetary policy.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Trump, if he wins in November, could work to undermine the bank’s independence, perhaps even putting officials under the purview of the executive branch.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has argued in recent months that policymakers operate without considering politics. “We don’t change anything in our approach to address other factors like the political calendar,” he told reporters last month. He has not wavered from this position.

Some financial analysts have argued for months that the bank’s officials were missing the mark; that Powell was being too deferential to the Fed’s 2% inflation target.

They argue he should have pushed for easing up at 3% rather than waiting until price increases hovered over the Fed’s preferred rate.

The Fed should be more proactive, Lindsay Owens, executive director of left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative, told reporters last week. “Since that [July] meeting, we’ve had softening in the labor market, and softer-than-expected inflation numbers,” Owens said. “They’re going to have to play catch-up.”

Incumbent politicians would prefer low interest rates, which can help stimulate the economy before voters make their way to the polls. It is unlikely an economic boost would come in the weeks ahead of the election, but the mere perception of bias could have a meaningful impact on what happens next with the central bank.

While President Joe Biden and Powell have mostly kept to their own lanes politically — Biden focusing on fiscal policy, Powell on monetary — other prominent Democrats have not been shy at pressing the bank to ease up on the reins.

“A rate cut at your meeting this week would represent the polar opposite of a political intervention,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., wrote in a letter to Powell at the end of July.

For her part, Warren has been the most aggressive, often haranguing the chairman during Senate hearings about rate hikes. She has previously warned him that a more hawkish policy hurts everyday Americans, makes it more difficult for borrowers, and could sacrifice millions of jobs.

When he signaled last month that a policy change might be coming to interest rates, Powell touted the Fed’s inflation fight, saying price increases have come down without resulting in mass layoffs or dislocation in the labor market.