Trump just posted that if the Fed won't cut rates, the US will stop trading with every country it runs a trade deficit with. That's China, Mexico, the EU, Canada and more, covering a $1.24 trillion goods deficit in 2025 alone.

His logic: those countries only stay financially powerful because the US lets them sell more than they buy, so he's using that as leverage against the Fed.

Here's where economists push back hard. Cutting off that much trade would put serious upward pressure on prices, and finding alternative suppliers for many of those goods would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

And that's the self-defeating part. The Fed raises rates when inflation is high and cuts them when the economy needs a boost. Spiking prices through a trade embargo would force the Fed to do the exact opposite of what Trump wants.

His own handpicked Fed chair Kevin Warsh is already leaning toward rate hikes, not cuts, and markets agree.

It's the ultimate chicken-and-egg situation, except Trump is threatening to kill the chicken to get cheaper eggs.