Trump steps up pressure campaign on Powell with handwritten note

President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs Monday, accusing its chair, Jerome Powell, in a handwritten note of costing the country "a fortune" and demanding that he cut interest rates "by a lot."

In a separate social media post Monday, Trump said Powell and his colleagues on the Fed's Board of Governors, who vote on every monetary policy decision, "should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to the United States."

"If they were doing their job properly, our Country would be saving Trillions of Dollars in Interest Cost," Trump wrote. "The Board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame."

The criticism is the latest in months of attacks in which Trump has insulted Powell directly and has even threatened to fire him as chair. On Friday, the president encouraged Powell to resign before his term as chair is up in May. Powell can stay on as a governor until 2028 if he chooses.

Trump has also floated naming a replacement for Powell long before his term expires, a move that could complicate communications for the Fed.

The next opening on the Fed board is for the slot occupied by Adriana Kugler, whose term is set to expire in January. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floated the idea of appointing Powell's successor to that position and later elevating that person to be chair.

One prerequisite for the next chair is that the person must be willing to lower interest rates, Trump said Friday, a pledge that risks undermining the central bank's long-standing independence from the White House.

The president's note to Powell on Monday promoted savings of "hundreds of billions of dollars" if the Fed lowered interest rates. Republicans are trying to pass a sweeping tax and spending bill that is poised to raise the federal deficit sharply, which would force the government to earmark more money to cover interest payments on the debt. Trump has called for as much as a 2.5-percentage-point reduction in interest rates, well below the level of 4.25% to 4.5% that has been in place since January.

After lowering borrowing costs by 1 percentage point last year, the Fed has stuck to a "wait and see" approach on further cuts amid uncertainty about how the economy will respond to Trump's policies, including tariffs.

As the attacks on Powell continued, he was in Sintra, Portugal, meeting with other global central bankers. At a dinner Monday to mark the start of the European Central Bank's annual conference there, Christine Lagarde, the president of the bank, took a moment to recognize Powell.

He "epitomizes the standard of the courageous central banker," Lagarde said, adding that Powell deserved the room's applause.