On today's podcast:
1) President Trump said he was looking to “de-escalate” in Minnesota with a reshuffle of the leadership running his deportation effort in the state following widespread outcry over the killing of two US citizens by federal agents. Still, the president denied he was pulling back his immigration crackdown and said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would remain in her post, as he looked to signal a recalibration rather than a retreat in the aftermath of the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent during an enforcement operation. Meantime, US Representative Ilhan Omar was charged at by a man who appeared to squirt an unknown liquid on her during a town hall gathering in Minneapolis, as she called for consequences for the federal officials overseeing President Trump’s aggressive immigration policies.
2) President Trump’s relaxed tone about the dollar selloff is fueling speculation the US currency is at the start of a longer-term decline. The dollar suffered its deepest one-day drop since last year’s tariff rollout after Trump said on Tuesday he didn’t think the currency had weakened excessively. Bloomberg’s dollar gauge slid as much as 1.2% as the comments sapped the appeal of the greenback and US Treasuries — boosting what has become known as the debasement trade. The dollar’s recent decline is great for US businesses, Trump told reporters in Iowa. While that’s in line with previous commentary from US officials, his remarks moved currency markets late Tuesday, partly because they appeared to validate the steep decline in the greenback in recent sessions.
3) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may try to direct attention back to the economy this week, with the US central bank widely expected to hold interest rates steady after three straight reductions. But Powell’s first press conference since the Fed was served grand jury subpoenas — and coming days after the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the attempted removal of another Fed governor — is bound to include questions about political pressure, central bank independence and what the Fed chief plans to do after his term as chair ends in May. A decision to hold rates steady this month is likely to garner broad support from policymakers following a series of contentious cuts. While the majority of officials agreed in those instances to backstop a weakening labor market, another group of policymakers pushed for the focus to remain on elevated inflation.