President Donald Trump turned up the volume on his Federal Reserve criticism Thursday, demanding immediate rate cuts and accusing Chair Jerome Powell of actively harming both the economy and national security by maintaining current borrowing costs.

In an early morning social media blast, Trump claimed the Fed Chair is "costing America hundreds of billions of dollars a year in totally unnecessary and uncalled for interest expense." He didn't stop there. "He is hurting our Country, and its National Security," Trump wrote, adding that "we should have a substantially lower rate now that even this moron admits inflation is no longer a problem or threat."

The president's argument? The U.S. economy is strong, particularly thanks to tariff revenues, which he says justifies lower borrowing costs. In Trump's view, America should be paying the "lowest interest rate of any country in the world."

This latest salvo came right after Powell's Wednesday press conference, where the Fed held rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% and made it clear there's no rush to cut further. Powell said the central bank is "well positioned" after three rate cuts since September and emphasized that future decisions would remain data-dependent. He also forcefully defended the Fed's independence from political interference.

When Powell Dismisses Gold, Gold Tends to Disagree

Here's where things get interesting. The precious metals rally actually accelerated after Powell tried to brush off the significance of soaring gold and silver prices. During Wednesday's press conference, Powell was asked whether the Fed sees any economic signal in the metals rally. His response was essentially: not really.

"If you look at where inflation expectations are, our credibility is right where it needs to be," Powell said. "We don't get spun up over particular asset change prices, although we do monitor them, of course."

The market, it seems, had other ideas.

On Thursday, gold prices surged 2.2% to a record above $5,530 per ounce. That marks an eighth consecutive session of gains and pushes the yellow metal up roughly 28% for the month. If that holds, it would be gold's strongest monthly performance since January 1973.

Silver is doing even more impressive gymnastics, jumping 1.8% past $118 per ounce. The white metal is continuing a parabolic move that has it on track for its best month since the 1864 American Civil War. Yes, you read that right.

During premarket trading in New York, the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) was up over 1%, set to extend its year-to-date gains to 30%. That would make it the fund's best month since April 2020.

So while Powell maintains the Fed's credibility is intact and that individual asset moves don't tell the whole story, gold and silver are screaming something entirely different. Whether that's about inflation fears, dollar concerns, geopolitical uncertainty, or simply momentum-driven speculation remains up for debate. What's not debatable: the metals are having a historic run, and Powell's reassurances haven't slowed them down one bit.