White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday showed reporters an oversized copy of a handwritten letter President Donald Trump wrote to admonish Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the Fed's refusal to lower interest rates, which Trump believes would help the economy grow.

"Jerome — You are, as usual, 'Too Late,'" the letter read. "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."

.@PressSec reads a message from @POTUS to Jerome Powell: "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 are being lost. No inflation." pic.twitter.com/5SN0yh9YI2

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 30, 2025

Trump has coined "Too Late" as a moniker for Powell, who he feels has unnecessarily delayed rate cuts now that inflation has lessened.

Wait and see

Among other reasons, Powell and the Fed have been waiting to see the impact of tariffs on inflation and the broader economy. So far, inflation has remained low.

"The one problem that remains is high interest rates for the American people," Leavitt said. "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. So the president sent this note to the Fed chairman today."

"I would remind the Fed chair and I would remind the entire world that this is a president who was a businessman first," Leavitt added. "And he knows what he is doing."

And of course, Trump is correct that lower interest rates would rev up some sectors of the economy like real estate and possibly car sales.

The downside could be that if interest rates are artificially low, demand would be artificially high. This could cause inflation to increase and could lead to a bubble that will later pop and cause pain for the economy.

The justification

Inflation has been decreasing and was only .2% in April and .1% in May, for an annualized rate of 2.4% so far this year.

Experts expect that the Fed will begin cutting interest rates in September, but Trump believes that is too late to have the maximum economic impact.

Two reductions in 2025 are expected, but that doesn't really guarantee anything.

On the one hand, 2.4% is just about exactly where inflation is traditionally expected to be. In other words, no action may be just about right to maintain the status quo.

The economy has a 2% rate of growth so far this year, but that is .5% slower than it grew last year. Slowing growth has been a reason for cutting interest rates in the past, so we will see if it happens this time.