During today’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that President Trump sent a handwritten note to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, demanding immediate and substantial interest rate cuts. The note was written directly onto a printed chart comparing U.S. interest rates to those of other countries. Reading it aloud, Leavitt quoted Trump’s words: “Jerome – You are, as usual, ‘too late’. 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 being lost! No inflation.”

Leavitt used the note to underscore the administration’s message that U.S. rates remain unnecessarily high, despite what she called “historically low inflation thanks to the President’s policies.” She told reporters that Trump believes Americans deserve cheaper borrowing costs and that his economic approach “worked in his first term and it is working again.” According to Leavitt, the chart attached to the note showed that countries ranging from Switzerland to Cambodia have lower rates despite weaker economies.

The press secretary argued that lowering rates would unlock further growth, ease household financial burdens, and extend what she described as the “Trump economic boom” marked by record-high stock markets and the lowest summer gas prices in four years. This handwritten note is the latest example of Trump’s direct pressure campaign on Powell as the administration seeks aggressive rate cuts to support its economic and legislative agenda in the coming weeks.