U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would “shortly” name his pick for an open seat on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and possibly announce his nominee for Fed chair as well, while ruling out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who wants to remain in his current role.

Trump called it a “pleasant surprise” that Fed Governor Adriana Kugler had decided to leave her seat now instead of when her term ends in January, according to his interview with CNBC.

That move appears to have accelerated Trump’s decision on who to appoint to an open seat on the Fed board, with possible plans to promote that person to the top policymaking role when Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in May.

“It’ll be one of four people,” Trump said, adding that he considered both current economic adviser Kevin Hassett and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh as “very good” possibilities. He did not name the other two, but is reportedly considering current Governor Christopher Waller, who has advocated rate cuts but not at the pace or extent Trump wants.

“There are numerous people that are qualified,” Trump said. “I am going to be announcing that very shortly,” the president said of naming a replacement for Kugler.

“A lot of people say, when you do that, why don’t you just pick the person who is going to head up the Fed? That’s a possibility too,” Trump said.

Trump has been critical of Powell for not cutting interest rates, even as Fed policymakers balance evidence of both a slowing economy and a weakening job market against the fact that inflation remains well above the central bank’s 2% target and is expected to move higher.

Whoever Trump names to Kugler’s seat will need to be confirmed by the Senate, and it would be for a shortened term of only a few months, and require another Senate vote for a full 14-year term early next year.

The nomination for chair of the Fed board would require a separate nomination and Senate confirmation process.

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India “very substantially” over the next 24 hours, given the country’s continued purchases of Russian oil.

The threat comes nearly a week after Trump announced 25% tariffs on Indian imports, and U.S. officials have cited a range of geopolitical issues standing in the way of a U.S.-India trade accord.

Trade rift deepened as Trump also threatened unspecified penalties over India’s oil purchases from Russia.

“India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them,” the president said on Tuesday.

“So we settled on 25% but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he told CNBC in a televised interview.

Earlier on Tuesday, India’s ruling party and main opposition condemned Trump’s threat, in a show of political unity.

Manish Tewari, a member of Parliament and leader of the opposition Congress, said Trump’s “disparaging remarks hurt the dignity and self-respect of Indians.”

“The time has come to call out this constant bullying and hectoring,” he added.

BJP Vice President Baijayant Jay Panda quoted Henry Kissinger – the most powerful U.S. diplomat of the Cold War era – in a post on social media platform X: “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”

India’s Foreign Ministry said the country was being unfairly singled out over its purchases of Russian oil, and highlighted continued trade between Moscow and both the U.S. and the European Union, despite the war in Ukraine.

“It is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia,” it said in a statement issued late on Monday.

“It is unjustified to single out India,” the ministry said.

It said the EU conducted 67.5 billion euros ($78.02 billion) in trade with Russia in 2024, including record imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) reaching 16.5 million metric tons.

The United States, the statement said, continues to import Russian uranium hexafluoride for use in its nuclear power industry, palladium, fertilizers and chemicals. It did not give a source for the export information.

Both the United States and the EU have sharply scaled back their trade ties with Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In 2021, Russia was the EU’s fifth-largest trading partner, with goods exchange worth 258 billion euros, according to the EU executive European Commission.

Sudden rift

India is the biggest buyer of seaborne crude from Russia, importing about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1% from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by trade sources.

It has faced pressure from the West to distance itself from Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine. New Delhi has resisted, citing its longstanding ties with Russia and economic needs.

India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is likely to travel to Russia this week on a scheduled visit, two government sources said. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar is expected to visit in the coming weeks.

The sudden rift between India and the U.S. has been deepening since July 31, when Trump announced the 25% tariff on goods being shipped to the U.S. and for the first time threatened unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil.

Trump has said that from Friday, he will impose new sanctions on Russia as well as on countries that buy its energy exports, unless Moscow takes steps to end the war with Ukraine.

The trade tensions have caused concern about the potential impact on India’s economy.

The equity benchmark BSE Sensex closed down 0.38%, while the rupee dropped 0.17% versus the dollar.

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Syrian Economy and Industry Minister Nidal al-Shaar said Tuesday that Türkiye and Syria are “bound by destiny” and share “a common future” during a meeting.

The Türkiye-Syria roundtable meeting in Ankara was also attended by Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the president of Türkiye’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges.

Al-Shaar said Türkiye became “one of the largest economies worldwide in two decades,” and the relations between Ankara and Damascus will continue based on “mutual respect and sincerity.”

The minister said that “no country other than Türkiye and Syria” has done as much for each other, emphasizing that the continued partnership “has to be established in every area,” extending it to cultural, social, economic, industrial, and production areas.

“The experience Türkiye has is one that we can call a miracle,” he said. “That is not easy.”

Al-Shaar said the partnership will start with small and medium-sized enterprises, and then it will move on to larger projects. “We placed trust in the Turkish economy and the Turkish business community, especially in the field of investments,” he noted.

He mentioned that Türkiye will establish production plants in Syria and export industrial goods, while the investments from Türkiye will drive more production.

Al-Shaar highlighted that the 15-year break in relations between Türkiye and Syria during the civil war will resume with the collective effort of rebuilding the country. “The Türkiye-Syria partnership is certain, and it is guided by destiny: this is why we will be together,” he said.

Ankara, which supported opposition forces in Syria throughout the 13-year civil war that ended in December with the ousting of longtime dictator Bashar Assad, has now become one of the new government’s main foreign allies while positioning itself to be a major player in the country’s reconstruction.

Bolat said Tuesday that Turkish banks are preparing to launch operations in Syria in the near future.

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Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei vetoed on Monday an attempt to hike spending on pensions in the country and a law expanding protections for people with disabilities, saying the legislation would have undermined his flagship pledge to eliminate the nation’s chronic fiscal deficit before October’s midterm elections.

In publishing the veto decisions, Milei’s administration said that Congress last month passed the spending bills – meant to more fully compensate retirees for inflation and offer more financial benefits for people with disabilities – “without determining the source of the funds.”

It said the bills “contradicted (Milei’s) popular mandate” to bring down inflation.

Since coming to power in late 2023, Milei has vetoed all efforts to boost public spending, often wielding the slogan “there is no money” against people’s demands that he restore subsidies. The government projects that the additional expenditures, including a 7.2% pension increase, will amount to about 0.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and 1.68% next year.

“This president prefers to tell an uncomfortable truth rather than repeat comfortable lies: There is no money,” the government said. Spinning off the slogan of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, it added: “The only way to make Argentina great again is with effort and honesty, not the same old recipes.”

Last year, Milei racked up Argentina’s first annual fiscal surplus in 14 years by making painful cuts to social spending and public works. The austerity measures helped drive down Argentina’s monthly inflation rate to below 2% in June for the first time in five years, compared to more than 25% when Milei entered office in December 2023.

But the fiscal shock program has also deepened economic misery for many Argentines: Unemployment has climbed, wages adjusted for inflation have declined, and prices are still up 40% year-on-year.

Congress can still overturn these vetoes with a two-thirds majority in both chambers, a challenge for Milei’s libertarian party, which holds only a small minority of seats.

Milei, whose relationship with lawmakers has been tense ever since he took office, last year managed to win enough votes from his party’s closest ally, the conservative PRO bloc, to prevent the pension increases.

Milei is looking to Argentina’s crucial midterm elections in October to boost his party’s representation as he seeks to continue his fiscal balance drive and draw more foreign investment.

The elections are widely seen as a referendum on his two years in office.

Retirees have been at the forefront of protests against Milei’s government. Every Wednesday now for months, dozens of older Argentines struggling to scrape by on pensions of just $400 a month have faced off against security forces armed with tear gas and water cannons.

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When the coronavirus surged during President Donald Trump’s first term, he sought to downplay the outbreak by urging fewer tests. After losing the 2020 election, he claimed – without evidence – that the vote was rigged.

And on Friday, faced with a weak July jobs report, Trump followed a familiar pattern: He dismissed the report as “phony” and fired the official in charge of the data.

Trump has a go-to playbook if the numbers reveal uncomfortable realities, and that’s to discredit or conceal the figures and to attack the messenger – all of which can hurt the president’s efforts to convince the world that America is getting stronger.

“Our democratic system and the strength of our private economy depend on the honest flow of information about our economy, our government and our society,” said Douglas Elmendorf, a Harvard University professor who was formerly director of the Congressional Budget Office. “The Trump administration is trying to suppress honest analysis.”

The president’s strategy carries significant risks for his own administration and a broader economy that depends on politics-free data.

His denouncements threaten to lower trust in government and erode public accountability, and any manipulation of federal data could result in policy choices made on faulty numbers, causing larger problems for both the president and the country.

The White House disputes any claims that Trump wants to hide numbers that undermine his preferred narratives.

It emphasized that Goldman Sachs found that the two-month revisions on the jobs report were the largest since 1968, outside of a recession, and that should be a source of concern regarding the integrity of the data. Trump’s aides say their fundamental focus is ensuring that any data gives an accurate view of reality.

Not first time

Trump has a long history of dismissing data when it reflects poorly on him and extolling or even fabricating more favorable numbers, a pattern that includes his net worth, his family business, election results and government figures:

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in a lawsuit brought by the state of New York that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans. Trump has claimed that the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were each rigged. Trump won the 2016 presidential election by clinching the Electoral College, but he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, a sore spot that led him to falsely claim that millions of immigrants living in the country illegally had cast ballots. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but falsely claimed he had won it, despite multiple lawsuits failing to prove his case. In 2019, as Hurricane Dorian neared the East Coast, Trump warned Alabama that the storm was coming its way. Forecasters pushed back, saying Alabama was not at risk. Trump later displayed a map in the Oval Office that had been altered with a black Sharpie – his signature pen – to include Alabama in the potential path of the storm. Trump’s administration has stopped posting reports on climate change, canceled studies on vaccine access and removed data on gender identity from government sites. As pandemic deaths mounted, Trump suggested that there should be less testing. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people,” Trump said at a June 2020 rally in Oklahoma. “You’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.'”

While Trump’s actions have drawn outcry from economists, scientists and public interest groups, Elmendorf noted that Trump’s actions regarding economic data could be tempered by Congress, which could put limits on the president by whom he chooses to lead federal agencies, for example.

“Outside observers can only do so much,” Elmendorf said. “The power to push back against the president rests with the Congress. They have not exercised that power, but they could.”

Trump wants ‘own people’ in place

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, took aim at the size of the downward revisions in the jobs report (a combined 258,000 reduction in May and June) to suggest that the report had credibility issues.

He said Trump is focused on getting dependable numbers, despite the president linking the issue to politics by claiming the revisions were meant to make Republicans look bad.

“The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and more reliable,” Hassett said Sunday on NBC News.

Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who oversaw the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis during the Biden administration, stressed that revisions to the jobs data are standard. That’s because the numbers are published monthly, but not all surveys used are returned quickly enough to be in the initial publishing of the jobs report.

“Revisions solve the tension between timeliness and accuracy,” Kolko said. “We want timely data because policymakers and businesses and investors need to make decisions with the best data that’s available, but we also want accuracy.”

Kolko stressed the importance of ensuring that federal statistics are trustworthy, not just for government policymakers but for the companies trying to gauge the overall direction of the economy when making hiring and investment choices.

“Businesses are less likely to make investments if they can’t trust data about how the economy is doing,” he said.

Not every part of the jobs report was deemed suspect by the Trump administration.

Before Trump ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, the White House rapid response social media account reposted a statement by Vice President JD Vance noting that native-born citizens were getting jobs and immigrants were not, drawing from data in the household tables in the jobs report.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also trumpeted the findings on native-born citizens, noting on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” that they are accounting “for all of the job growth, and that’s key.”

During his first run for the presidency, Trump criticized the economic data as being fake, only to fully embrace the positive numbers shortly after he first entered the White House in 2017.

Transparency is value

The challenge of reliable data goes beyond economic figures to basic information on climate change and scientific research.

In July, taxpayer-funded reports on the problems climate change is creating for America and its population disappeared from government websites. The White House initially said NASA would post the reports in compliance with a 1990 law, but the agency later said it would not because any legal obligations were already met by having reports submitted to Congress.

The White House maintains that it has operated with complete openness, posting a picture of Trump on Monday on social media with the caption, “The Most Transparent President in History.”

In the picture, Trump had his back to the camera and was covered in shadows, visibly blocking out most of the light in front of him.

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Turkish banks are preparing to launch operations in Syria in the near future, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said Tuesday, as Türkiye adds momentum to efforts to help its neighbor recover its war-torn economy.

Bolat also emphasized the growing pace in talks aimed at involving Turkish contractors in Syria’s rebuilding process.

He was speaking alongside Syrian Economy and Industry Minister Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar at the signing ceremony of the founding protocol of the Türkiye-Syria Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in Ankara.

Ankara, which supported opposition forces in Syria throughout the 13-year civil war that ended in December with the ousting of longtime dictator Bashar Assad, has now become one of the new government’s main foreign allies while positioning itself to be a major player in the country’s reconstruction.

“Turkish and Syrian businesspeople are coming together today and tomorrow under the coordination of TOBB and DEIK,” Bolat said, referring to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye and the Foreign Economic Relations Board.

“The Türkiye-Syria Business Council is being reestablished, and its founding agreement will be signed tomorrow between Turkish and Syrian institutions at DEIK,” he noted.

Bolat said preparations are underway for Turkish financial institutions to enter the Syrian market. “Our banks are also preparing to begin operations in Syria in the short term,” he added.

His announcement comes days after representatives from Türkiye’s Treasury and banking sector reportedly met with Syrian officials in Damascus to explore potential cooperation in banking, insurance and public finance.

Before the Syrian civil war, Türkiye’s largest lender, Ziraat Bank, had been in talks to establish a bank in Syria with a local partner in 2010, but those plans were suspended with the onset of the conflict. Currently, no Turkish banks operate in Syria.

Following the ousting of Assad, Ziraat Bank General Manager Alpaslan Çakar had told Reuters that the bank would be ready to take on responsibility in Syria if conditions allowed.

Broader reconstruction-focused talks are ongoing between Türkiye and the Syrian interim government, particularly in sectors such as energy and infrastructure, as part of efforts to stabilize and rebuild the country.

“Turkish entrepreneurs led by contractors are eager to play an active role in the reconstruction of Syria, including infrastructure, superstructure and social housing,” Bolat said. “Discussions between business communities and contractors from both countries are accelerating.”

Speaking at a separate meeting following the ceremony, Bolat said they were taking modernization steps to facilitate border crossings with Syria, accelerate trade and enhance security.

He said Türkiye is ready to make the strongest contributions to Syria’s recovery, expressing belief that Turkish companies, with their expertise and experience in manufacturing, infrastructure, banking and construction, will take the lead in Syria.

“Our firms are ready to undertake Syria’s transportation infrastructure and rebuilding projects, especially those involving public-private partnerships and build-operate-transfer models,” Bolat said.

The JETCO meetings, which Bolat said will now be held at regular intervals, will bring together the business communities of both countries on an institutional platform. He also emphasized that they are ready to begin negotiations to establish a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the two nations.

Regarding his meeting with al-Shaar, Bolat noted that they discussed customs regime practices and transportation activities in detail.

“From now on, our trucks will no longer need to transfer cargo or swap trailers at the Syrian border. In the coming period, Aleppo will become a strong logistics hub. Syria’s transportation corridors will be reactivated. We are entering a new era where transit transport to Gulf countries will resume, and both our countries will benefit from emerging areas of cooperation in trade,” he said.

“We approach our customs collaboration with the same strategic vision, taking modernization steps that ease border crossings, speed up trade and enhance security, and we are improving the customs gates opening to Syria.”

Bolat also drew attention to the importance of the energy-related step and noted Saturday’s launch of gas exports to Syria.

Deliveries of Azerbaijan’s gas through Türkiye are expected to reach around 6 million cubic metres (mcm) per day. The current delivery plan foresees exports of 1.2 billion cubic meters annually. Türkiye said there was potential to supply up to 2 bcm per year in the first phase.

The gas will be used to restart power plants in Syria with a combined capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

The Türkiye-Syria Natural Gas Pipeline will meet the electricity needs of 5 million households, said Bolat, stressing the will to further develop cooperation with joint energy and power plant projects in the period ahead.

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