A fake resignation letter generated by AI fooled Utah Senator Mike Lee into thinking that Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, had quit on Tuesday. The senator tweeted and deleted the fake letter from his personal “basedmikelee” account, which staffers have confirmed that Lee operates directly.

The Federal Reserve held a first-of-its-kind conference Tuesday to meet the banks they help regulate. The event was the creation of the Fed’s new top regulatory official, Michelle Bowman, and her stated goal is more transparency.

The letter surfaced as President Donald Trump has bludgeoned the Federal Reserve chairman Powell with criticism over his refusal to cut interest rates.

On July 29-30, the Federal Open Market Committee will announce its interest rate policy. Read about the rumors that Fed Chair Powell will not likely address.

What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,” Bessent told CNBC on Monday. Bessent’s comments come as Donald Trump and his lieutenants have sharply criticised the Fed and its chair Jay Powell for refraining to cut borrowing costs this year.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Federal Reserve's vital independence on monetary policy is threatened by its "mandate creep" into non-policy areas and he called on the U.S. central bank to conduct an exhaustive review of those operations.