Trump ramps up his attacks on the Fed chair: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we examine how President Donald Trump’s continued broadsides against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are affecting the stock and bond markets. Plus, a new survey shows broad support for the U.S. system of checks and balances, with Republicans more likely to back stronger presidential power. 

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— Adam Wollner

Trump ramps up his attacks on the Fed chair

U.S. stocks tumbled and bonds sold off after President Donald Trump lobbed new insults at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, pressuring him to cut interest rates while markets are already contending with shocks from his tariff policy, Rob Wile reports.

The S&P closed down 2.4%. Since its February highs, the index is now off 16%, approaching bear market territory of a 20% decline.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell more than 2.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 1,000 points, or 2.5%. The yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note surged to 4.41%, its highest level in more than a week.

All three indexes are down more than 9% since Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement. 

Trump’s latest attacks: Trump claimed that “preemptive cuts” were being called for “by many” now that the economy was facing what he described as “virtually No Inflation.” He didn’t say who has called for the pre-emptive cuts, which the Fed rarely performs. 

Without the cuts, Trump wrote on Truth Social, the economy now risks slowing, “unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”

Though Trump has long criticized Powell, whom he appointed during his first term, his complaints have ramped up in recent days amid a major market reaction to his tariffs shock.

What comes next: Economic adviser Kevin Hassett said last week that the administration was “study[ing]” Trump’s options to remove Powell. No president has ever removed a Fed chair. The Fed has historically been a nonpolitical part of the government, and the prospect of Trump’s taking action has sparked concern that inflation would surge as he forced the central bank to ease up on its role of controlling price growth in favor of economic growth. 

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Hegseth fallout: Meanwhile, Trump stood by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after NBC News and other outlets reported that he used his personal phone to send information about U.S. military operations in Yemen to a 13-person Signal group chat, including his wife and his brother. 

“Pete’s doing a great job,” Trump told reporters at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House South Lawn, Rebecca Shabad reports.  

“Just ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump said, referring to the Iranian-backed group in Yemen that was targeted by U.S. airstrikes.

Hegseth suggested that disgruntled former employees who were recently fired leaked the information about his use of Signal group chats to the media.

“You know, what a big surprise that a bunch of leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,” Hegseth told reporters at the White House when he was asked about the latest revelations.

John Ullyot, who had been a top spokesman at the Defense Department before he left his job last week, wrote in an op-ed for Politico that “it’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon.” He added that it’s “hard to see” Hegseth “remaining in his position for much longer.”  

As Trump and courts battle over his policies, Americans back judicial authority

By Matthew Levendusky and Shawn Patterson

Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center conducted a study last month as part of the center’s Institutions of Democracy panel survey, interviewing a nationally representative sample of 1,363 Americans from March 6 to March 16 on six questions designed to measure their support for the system of checks and balances. 

The data was remarkably clear: Americans do not think the president should have the ability to act unconstrained by the courts and Congress. With one small exception, a majority of the public rejects the claim that presidents should have expansive powers. While Republicans are the most supportive of greater executive power as Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office, most of them still reject claims of unilateral authority.

Instead, Democrats, Republicans and independents alike believe that the courts and Congress should be able to check the president’s actions. The one partial exception is that a majority of Republicans think the president should have the authority to decide how executive agencies should implement the law. But even here, it is just a slight majority, and it is arguably a more subtle item than the other questions.

Only 16% of respondents, for example, said a president should be able to ignore court decisions he believes intrude on his constitutional authority, including 27% of Republicans. On the question of whether a president should have the right to enact policies without Congress’ voting on them, 20% of respondents agreed, including a third of Republicans.

More broadly, 58% overall agreed with the statement that courts prevent elected officials from abusing their power, including 51% of Republicans. And 84% overall agreed that courts play a vital role in our system of government, with little variation across partisan lines. 

Read more about the study →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.

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