Increasingly angry at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not having lowered short-term interest rates controlled by the Fed, President Donald Trump on June 12 added, “I may have to use force” to his complaint to media in the Oval Office. This, while repeating that he will not try to replace Powell before the latter’s term ends in May 2026. The President has harped on the fact that inflation has not increased so far this year, and on the reported fall-off in U.S. job creation in May (ironically, Wall Street media all reported the May jobs report as “strong, above expectations,” in order to goose stock prices.)
The U.S. Treasury had reported June 12 that although tariffs had produced about $80 billion in revenues thus far this fiscal year (October 2024-May 2025), the Federal budget deficit is 14% higher during that period, than even the rather spectacular deficit of President Joe Biden’s final year, which was itself just under $2 trillion for the whole of FY2024. The Treasury projected that interest payments on Federal debt over FY 2025 will hit $1.2 trillion.
