ALL FED UP

A rebellion just kicked off in the heart of Donald Trump’s empire, launched by the small gang of finance nerds running the Federal Reserve.

• President Donald Trump has left his mark on Washington D.C. — literally. He has plastered his face around the nation’s capital, designed monuments in his honor, demolished part of the White House, and hijacked independent government agencies. But today, Trump officially failed to conquer the institution that he’s arguably most obsessed with: the Federal Reserve. The finance geeks, it turns out, may be the most ferocious rebels of Trump’s second term.

• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh defied Trump’s demands to lower interest rates today, deciding to raise rates for the first time in three years by a quarter of a percentage point. The decision, though widely expected, marks a stunning rebuke of the president by a man that he hand-picked to do his bidding. “We should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world,” Trump recently told reporters.

• Warsh doesn’t agree. “The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long,” he said during a press conference today.

• Data shows that this was an obvious choice: The U.S. needs to tackle stubborn inflation, which has largely been driven by Trump’s war in Iran. Raising rates deters spending, which brings inflation down. There’s less risk in pushing rates up right now, since the job market remains relatively strong. What’s more, Warsh would’ve lost his credibility to shepherd the world’s largest economy if he didn’t defy Trump.

• Warsh effectively boxed himself in, according to experts, after declaring last month that inflation had been high for 65 months straight — and that the Fed has a responsibility to do something about it.

• “Warsh is a man of his word,” tweeted financial expert Joseph Wang.

Trump reacted as you’d expect: with a temper tantrum

• Trump’s obsession with lowering interest rates is all about politics. When the Fed lowers rates, the stock market and economy usually get a near-term boost. Politicians *always* want lower rates, especially right before elections. Trump has been hoping to show off booming growth to argue Americans should vote for him because he’s making them richer.

• To get there, Trump has been demanding lower rates. He wants them so badly, in fact, that he tried (and failed) to fire a member of the Fed’s board of governors while falsely accusing her of mortgage fraud. He even threatened former Fed Chair Jerome Powell with bogus criminal charges.

• “Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%,” Trump ranted on social media after the decision. “LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!” Hate to break it to you, but that ain’t happening anytime soon.

• There’s a deep irony here: Trump forced Warsh’s hand. The president’s ill-advised war in Iran resulted in higher oil prices, which are making everything more expensive. Great work, Mr. President!

• “Donald Trump will undoubtedly try to blame anyone but himself for this rate hike,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement. “But if he wants to know who caused it, he should look in the mirror.”

As one Trump ally told the Wall Street Journal: The rate hike “establishes the independence of the Fed from Trump and establishes Warsh’s bona fides as an inflation warrior.”

WHAT ELSE? 👀

The European Union invited Canada to start the process of becoming its first “associate member,” amid Donald Trump’s trade war with our friendly northern neighbors. Will this mean that I can drive to Europe soon? Probably not, but I’m gonna tell myself that’s the case.

Vice President JD Vance offered to advise Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, according to Vanity Fair. “JD called me and said, ‘Can you put me in touch with Jake Sullivan?’” a person connected to Clinton’s campaign at the time told the outlet, referencing her policy chief. “He called me again and he said, ‘I hate Hillary. But I hate Trump more. Trump can’t win. He can’t win. Hillary’s going to lose, but she doesn’t have to.’”

OpenAI’s rogue AI agents probed Hugging Face’s website for vulnerabilities and hijacked user accounts in May — two months before they infiltrated the company, sparking global panic, according to Reuters. We’re still learning about how artificial intelligence can act on its own, as most Americans worry that the technology will wipe out humanity.

Trump’s war with Iran keeps getting more unpopular, according to a new poll shared exclusively with Pod Save the World. Three-fourths of Independents now disapprove of the war in Iran. “Strong approval” for the war among Republicans has dropped 15 points. And 46% of Americans say the U.S. is less safe because of the war.

The Trump administration has slashed or frozen $177 billion in federal grants across every state since last year, according to a new analysis. Those cuts include grants related to “maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa,” the Associated Press writes.

Several opening acts dropped out of Ed Sheeran’s tour, after rapper Macklemore was kicked off for making pro-Palestinian remarks on stage. Macklemore announced that he plans to donate $1 million that he made from the tour to organizations that support Palestinians. “When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don’t move with it,” he wrote on Instagram.

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

A former NASA employee has been secretly tracking federal law enforcement’s actions in Washington, D.C. with a group of like-minded volunteers for the past year. The group went public in a Washington Post profile to raise awareness of the federal presence in the city.

Girls flag football is growing faster than any other sport in American high schools, according to new data. More than 100,000 girls now play the sport, up 551% in four years.

There have been an increasing number of great white shark sightings off the coast of Maine over the past year, which isn’t actually a bad thing. The sharks’ presence can likely be attributed to conservation efforts that began decades ago, according to experts. Now that these sharks have matured, they’re popping up more frequently.

Retired WNBA star Tamika Catchings has a unique way to stay focused every year: She chooses a word to embody her goals. “The first word I ever framed things around was grace. I had to give myself grace, honestly, because I am such a perfectionist,” Catchings told The Athletic. I want things to be done the right way. I want things to be done at a high level.” Love that idea!

Several aging rockstars have recently suffered major health issues— but that hasn’t stopped them from getting back on stage. Charlie Wilson suffered multiple strokes. Lionel Richie was hospitalized after a recent concert. Rod Stewart had heart surgery. Barry Manilow had surgery for lung cancer. “You can’t stop these guys; [performing] is in their blood,” Michael Paran, who manages Wilson, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s almost detrimental for them to just be sitting around doing nothing. A racehorse wants to race.” Rock on, grandpas.