Happy Wednesday and welcome to a sweltering July! Here's what we're watching while waiting for the U.S. men's World Cup match tonight against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Trump Takes First Flight on New Air Force One Gifted by Qatar, Retrofitted With Taxpayer Dollars
President Trump took his first official flight today on the new Air Force One. The luxury jet, estimated to be worth about $400 million, was donated by the government of Qatar and retrofitted for the president's use - an unprecedented gift that raised ethical and national security concerns.
The new Air Force One design replaces the familiar light blue hull of past presidential planes with a dark blue belly and stripes of red and gold, similar in appearance to the private jet Trump has used in the past for his personal travel. It has lavish interior furnishings, including large tan leather seats and seatbelts bearing the presidential seal.
"They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex now, but it's really quite something," Trump said.
The Air Force has said that retrofitting the jet to make the necessary security upgrades cost less than $400 million. Trump is expected to use the new jet until two other long-delayed Boeing 747s, being built in the United States, become available in about two years.
As he prepared for a morning flight to Medora, North Dakota, for the opening of a new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, Trump told reporters the country should be proud of the new jet. "There's never been a plane like it," he said. "Frankly, we couldn't build a plane like this because we wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollar."
Fed's Warsh Says Inflation Still Too High, but Now Poses Less Risk
New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said Wednesday that inflation remains too high and emphasized the central bank's commitment to staying independent and reining in price increases, despite pressure from President Trump to cut interest rates.
"If there were people in household or the business sector, in the financial markets, who thought that this central bank was going to be comfortable with an inflation objective above 2%, well, I guess they'd be disappointed," Warsh said at a European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal. "We're going to deliver price stability in the U.S."
Warsh's comments followed his similarly hawkish inaugural press conference as Fed chair two weeks ago. His remarks run counter to his calls for lower interest rates prior to becoming Fed chair - and to President Trump's oft-stated demand that rates should come down sharply.
"We've all looked around, and we've seen that prices are too high," Warsh said. The Fed's preferred inflation gauge rose to 3.4% in May, the highest level in nearly three years.
Warsh tempered that hawkishness by noting that inflation expectations have fallen in recent weeks. That's due in large part to a plunge in oil prices following a ceasefire in the war in Iran. While economists worry that soaring investments in artificial intelligence could boost near-term inflation, Warsh also suggested that the AI boom may increase economic productivity and eventually reduce inflationary pressures.
When asked about Trump's push for rate cuts, Warsh emphasized the Fed's independence: "We've been an independent central bank for a very long time. We're going to be an independent central bank at this moment, and you're going to see no changes on that."
Warsh also repeatedly stuck to his insistence that the Fed and its officials should not provide "forward guidance" and should be tighter lipped regarding their outlook for the economy and monetary policy. Warsh repeatedly pushed back on a moderator's attempts to elicit such views, and his rejection of forward guidance won support from the other central bankers on the panel. He shared the stage with ECB President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem.
The Fed's policymakers will hold their next two-day meeting starting on July 28. Markets now see a better than 70% chance that the bankers will hold rates steady this month, but a roughly 50% likelihood of a rate hike at the September 15-16 meeting.
Number of the Day: $2.2 Billion
President Trump's income topped $2 billion in 2025 as he raked in revenue from cryptocurrency, meme coins and other businesses, according to reports about Trump's newly released mandatory financial disclosures, which run 927 pages long.
The New York Times notes that Trump's 2025 revenue compares with a minimum of $622 million for 2024, before he began his second term in the White House. And the Times's Eric Lipton writes that Trump's cryptocurrency businesses "directly benefited from his actions as president." Bloomberg's Ryan Weeks points out that the president "reported more crypto-related income last year than any publicly traded US digital-asset company earned."
Trump shrugged off criticism that he's profiting from the presidency and told reporters today that he is removed from running his family's business operations and "never" speaks "to any of the people that run the money." Those people include two of his sons, who run the Trump Organization.
"You know why I'm profiting, because the stock market's going up. Everybody's profiting," the president told reporters as he prepared to board the new Air Force One, donated by Qatar. "I'm profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash."
Yet while Trump was profiting, many investors suffered huge losses from his crypto ventures (see the chart below from Steve Rattner based on data from Reuters).
Fiscal News Roundup
- Trump Pulled In at Least $2 Billion After Returning to the White House – New York Times
- Trump Filing Shows He Took in About $1.2 Billion From Crypto Businesses Last Year – Associated Press
- Crypto Brought Trump a Huge Windfall, Even as Many Investors Lost Big – New York Times
- The US, Canada and Mexico Begin Bumpy Negotiations to Renew North American Trade Pact – Associated Press
- US Decides Against Renewing USMCA, Shifting to Rolling Talks – Bloomberg
- Warsh Signals Long Road Ahead for a Smaller Fed Balance Sheet – Bloomberg
- Fed Chief Kevin Warsh Declines to Hint at July Rate Decision, but Says Inflation 'Too High' – CNBC
- Warsh Says Inflation Outlook Has Improved but Won't Say if Fed Should Hike – Wall Street Journal
- Federal Reserve Chair Warsh Emphasizes Political Independence, Signals Focus on Inflation – Associated Press
- US Manufacturing Expands at Slower Pace, Costs Gauge Drops – Bloomberg
- Judges Strike Down Trump Administration Student Loan Forgiveness Overhaul – The Hill
- Trump Says US 'Couldn't Build a Plane Like This' as Qatari-Gifted Air Force One Embarks on Inaugural Flight – CNN
- Medicare Is Now Covering Some GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs for $50. Here's What to Know – Associated Press
Views and Analysis
- GOP Infighting Over SAVE America Act Leaves Critical Legislation in Limbo – Lindsey Granger, The Hill
- Affordability Isn't a Slogan - It's a Governing Agenda. – Debbie Cox Bultan, The Hill
- The Trump Family and 'Honest Graft' – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
- Warsh Wants the Fed to Talk Less. That Only Gets Wall Street to Listen Harder. – Sam Goldfarb, Wall Street Journal
- Clarity on the USMCA Is Essential for Economic Success – Bloomberg Editorial Board
- Republicans for Higher Gas Prices – Washington Post Editorial Board
- Takeaways From Supreme Court Term: Trump's Power Is Enhanced, but He Lost Some High-Profile Cases – Mark Sherman and Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
- The Supreme Court Is Building Its Own Massive Police Force – Josh Gerstein, Politico