US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faces a high-stakes speech this week under fire from a public campaign by President Donald Trump and a growing insurrection within his own institution, threatening to politicise the central bank ahead of a critical policy decision.

The pressure intensified Tuesday when Trump launched a fresh attack on the social media site Truth Social, blaming Powell for crippling the housing market.

“Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the Housing Industry, very badly?” Trump wrote. “People can’t get a Mortgage because of him. There is no Inflation, and every sign is pointing to a major Rate Cut.”

The broadside comes just days before Powell is set to speak at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, where investors will scrutinise his every word for hints on the likelihood of interest rate cuts. The Fed’s next policy meeting is scheduled for September 16-17.

While investors are betting on a quarter-point cut next month, Trump has demanded aggressive reductions amounting to several percentage points — a move most economists believe would dangerously overheat the economy.

The public criticism is now being mirrored by internal dissent. Two Fed governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, already broke ranks to vote for a cut at the July meeting. Their rebellion is poised to grow significantly with Trump’s nomination of Stephen Miran — a loyalist who has endorsed the president’s calls for deep rate cuts — to an empty seat on the Fed’s board.

Analysts expect “fireworks” if Miran is confirmed by the Senate in time for the September meeting, which would give Powell three dissenters from within his own seven-member board.

This internal schism opens at a time of profound economic uncertainty. While the Consumer Price Index remains elevated above the Fed’s 2 per cent target, recent data presents a mixed picture: job growth has cooled but producer prices jumped, suggesting higher costs for consumers may be on the way.

This ambiguity has created what one strategist called an “uncomfortable equilibrium”, dramatically complicating Powell’s job. The chair must weigh the risk of cutting rates too soon and reigniting inflation against moving too late and damaging the labour market.

Trump’s sweeping tariffs have further clouded the outlook, creating what Apollo Global Management’s Torsten Sløk called a “stagflationary impulse” that has complicated the Fed’s job “dramatically”, the Financial Review said.

The political pressure is unrelenting. Beyond his public attacks, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promoted the idea of a half-point rate cut in September. Trump himself has demanded rates be slashed to 1 per cent to reduce government debt costs, a level economists view as extreme and inappropriate for the current economy.

All eyes are now on Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole, where he must navigate this minefield of political pressure, internal dissent, and murky economic data without spooking global markets or appearing to capitulate to his critics.