Recently, things have heated up again in the US—during a speech in South Korea, Trump gave the Federal Reserve Chairman a nickname, calling him "Jerome 'Too Late' Powell," which had the business leaders at the APEC summit laughing out loud on the spot.

At the core of this issue is the disagreement over the pace of rate cuts. Trump is clearly dissatisfied with how quickly the Fed is acting; he believes that they shouldn't hold off on cutting rates just because they're worried about inflation over the next three years. Interestingly, while making this point, he also seemed to implicitly acknowledge that inflation could in fact rebound.

Even more sensational was his economic forecast: Trump predicted that US GDP growth could reach 4% in the first quarter of 2026. For reference, the average expectation among economists surveyed by Reuters is nowhere near this optimistic. The problem is that most economists believe a new round of import tariffs would drag down growth, which is completely at odds with Trump's forecast.

After these comments on Thursday, the rift between the White House and the Fed has clearly widened even further. Trump repeatedly emphasized that the Fed is moving too slowly, even drawing comparisons to the European Central Bank, and said that this hesitancy is undermining market confidence.

For the crypto market, this kind of policy tug-of-war is worth watching—if expectations for rate cuts truly heat up, risk assets typically benefit. But if tariff policies trigger an economic slowdown, that's a whole different story.