Welcome to the program. Hello, this is News Hour from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Henley. We're coming to you live from London.

President Trump has launched another tirade against another leading American public servant. In a scathing post on his Truth Social app, Mr. Trump said the termination of the independent head of the Federal Reserve could not come fast enough.

Jerome Powell had warned that Trump's sweeping tariffs on virtually every trade partner could put the Fed in the unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday, Mr. Powell said the levies were higher than estimated

and that it would probably lead to less growth and higher prices.

The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated,

and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects,

which will include higher inflation and slower growth.

Both survey and market-based measures of near-term inflation expectations have moved up significantly,

with survey participants pointing to tariffs.

Mr. Trump repeated a demand for Mr. Powell to lower interest rates and said his decisions were

always too late and wrong. Speaking at the White House in the past couple of hours, Mr. Trump

said it was up to him whether or not Mr. Powell remained in his job.

Oh, he'll leave. If I ask him to, he'll be out of there. I don't think he's doing the job.

He's too late, always too late, a little slow, and I'm not happy with him. I let him know it.

And if I want him out, he'll be out of there real fast, believe me.

Mr. Trump also said he believed Mr. Powell would give in and lower interest rates eventually

and that he had a duty to do so.

I would say the Fed really owes it to the American people to get interest rates down.

That's the only thing he's good for.

And he would have an effect on that if he lowered him.

And I think at some point he will.

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