Following President Donald Trump’s lead, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a Trump appointee who has held off on benchmark rate cuts until the U.S. central bank can gauge the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
“I would remind the Fed chair, and I would remind the entire world, that this is a president who was a businessman first, and he knows what he is doing,” said Leavitt.
The White House spokeswoman opened Monday’s briefing by reading a note from Trump to Powell.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a note from President Donald Trump to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell written on a list of central bank rates worldwide, as she speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, June 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“Jerome, you are, as usual, too late,” Leavitt said, reading the correspondence from the president. “You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost and there is no inflation.”
The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is tracking at 2.3% annually, slightly higher than the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed sees political independence as a key value for the integrity of the monetary policies it sets with the goals of stabilizing prices and maximizing employment.
Leavitt demurred when asked why Trump had not simply fired Powell, a move that could rattle financial markets. She said the question could be asked to Trump directly. Trump has said he could fire Powell if he wanted, but a recent Supreme Court ruling indicated that the Fed chair has a unique status.