President Donald Trump is finding novel ways to try to pressure Fed chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates – this time releasing an angry handwritten note that casts the US central bank as behind the curve.

Trump posted a chart of ‘World Central Bank Rates’ – showing institutions from countries including Botswana, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, and Albania which have set their own rates lower than the U.S.

He hand-wrote the note in all-caps with his familiar Sharpie marker, once again telling Powell that he is ‘too late’ in bringing down rates.

‘You have cost the USA a fortune and continued to do so,’ he lectured. ‘Hundreds of billions of dollars being lost! No inflation,’ the president added.’ 

Trump last week said he was already thinking of replacements for the Princeton-educated Powell, who he has repeatedly called ‘stupid.’ 

The president published the post online shortly before the White House press briefing, where press secretary Karoline Leavitt read from what she called ‘original correspondence’ from Trump.

‘As the president has consistently stated, the American economy is booming, and there were so many economic analysts who said that this president’s policies would drive our economy down, when in fact, we have seen the opposite,’ she said at the top of the briefing. 

Powell has consistently said Fed decisions would not be influenced by political pressure. 

Irate: President Donald Trump fired off an angry letter to Fed chair Jerome Powell complaining about US interest rates

But that hasn’t stopped the White House from trying. 

‘The American people want to borrow money cheaply, and they should be able to do that, but unfortunately, we have interest rates that are still too high,’ Leavitt said.

The president made clear where he thinks US rates should be. ‘Should be here,’ he wrote on his note, pointing to six countries with lower rates at the top of his list.  

Powell himself testified last week that one reason the Fed was reluctant to slash rates further was the uncertainty Trump’s tariffs were injecting into markets.

He told the Senate Finance Committee: ‘We do expect to show up — tariff inflation to show up more.’

‘But I want to be honest, we really don’t know how much of that’s going to be passed through to the consumers. We just don’t know. And we won’t know until we see it. It could be lower than we expect; it could be higher. We have to wait and see, which is kind of what we’re doing.’

Trump’s note comes after he repeatedly called the Fed chair ‘stupid’

Trump penned his note to Powell on top of a list of world central bank rates

In just one example, Trump last week said the US was ending trade talks with Canada after it imposed a digital services tax that could hammer US tech companies. Then Canada PM Mark Carney announced it was dropping the tax after Trump’s threat. 

Leavitt heralded it as a victory declaring that Canada ‘caved to the United States of America,’ delivering a big victory for U.S. tech companies.

She then rattled off a slew of other countries with lower interest rates by a quarter, including Switzerland, Cambodia, Japan and Denmark. 

Leavitt wouldn’t respond directly when asked why Trump wouldn’t just fire Powell, the chair of the independent Fed’s board of governors. But she did claim there had been ‘politicization of the Fed.’ 

‘Jerome Powell cut rates numerous times ahead of the election when Joe Biden was in his Oval Office, but now he refuses to when the economy is in a much better place,’ she said.

The Fed sometimes lowers its federal funds rate in order to try to boost economic activity, raising it to try to control inflation.