By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

President Donald Trump is badgering the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, but even if the Fed gave in to the pressure, it wouldn’t necessarily lead to lower borrowing costs for consumers.

In fact, economists say, Trump’s ongoing attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his tariff policies could keep the longer-term interest rates that matter for consumers and businesses higher than they otherwise would be. A less-independent Fed can lead, over time, to higher borrowing costs, as investors worry that inflation may spike in the future. As a result they demand higher yields to own Treasury securities.

Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to cut the short-term interest rate that the central bank controls. The Fed typically reduces its rate during an economic downturn to encourage more borrowing and spending, and raises it to cool the economy and fight inflation when prices rise.

But long-term rates on things like mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards are largely set by market forces. And in recent weeks, fears that Trump’s sweeping tariffs could raise inflation, along with the administration’s threats to the Fed’s independence, have led markets to push those longer term rates higher. It’s not clear that the Fed can fully reverse those trends by itself.

“It’s not automatically true that even if the Fed were to cut rates, that you would see a measured decline in long-term interest rates,” Francesco Bianchi, an economist at Johns Hopkins University, said. “This kind of pressure on the Fed might backfire…if markets don’t believe the Fed has inflation under control.”

Trump renewed calls on Wednesday and Thursday for Powell to reduce the Fed’s short-term rate, telling reporters that the chair is “making a mistake” by not doing so.

And last week, Trump suggested he could fire Powell, while a top aide said that the White House was “studying” whether it could do so.

Stock markets plunged in response, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose, and the dollar fell, an unusual combination that suggested investors were selling most American assets. Markets recovered those losses after Trump said on Tuesday that he had “no intention” of firing the Fed chair.

Still, the threats to the Fed’s independence unnerved Wall Street investors, because they see a Fed free from political pressure as critical to keeping inflation in check. An independent Fed can take unpopular steps, such as raising rates, to fight inflation.

“Threatening the Fed doesn’t soothe markets — it spooks them,” said Lauren Goodwin, chief market strategist at New York Life Investments. “And the result is often the opposite of what any administration wants to see: higher rates, weaker confidence, and more market turmoil.”

Since Trump began imposing tariffs in early March, when he slapped duties on Canada and Mexico, the 10-year Treasury yield has risen from 4.15% to about 4.3%. The yield is a benchmark for mortgage rates and other borrowing. Mortgage rates, in turn, have increased during that time, from 6.6% to 6.8%.

While Trump says he is negotiating over tariffs with many countries, most economists expect some level of duties to remain in place for at least this year, including his 10% duties on nearly all imports.

The 10-year yield did fall Thursday when two Federal Reserve officials said that rate cuts are possible as soon as this summer, should the economy falter and unemployment rise.

Yet last fall, longer-term interest rates also fell in anticipation of rate cuts, but then rose once the Fed cut in September and then continued to rise as the central bank reduced its rate again in November — two days after the election — and in December. Mortgage rates are now higher than they were when the Fed cut.

A range of factors can affect longer-term Treasury rates, including expectations for future growth and inflation, as well as the supply and demand for government bonds. Bianchi worries that stubbornly high government budget deficits — which are financed by trillions of dollars of Treasurys — could also lift long-term rates.

Should the Fed cut rates now, llonger-term borrowing costs “would move in the opposite direction, absolutely,” Goodwin said, “because the threat of inflation is so palpable — that move would call their credibility into question.”

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Trump said in a social media post this week that there is “virtually No Inflation” and as a result, the Fed should lower its key rate, from its current level of about 4.3%. Many economists expect the central bank will do so this year. But Powell has underscored that the central bank wants to evaluate the impact of Trump’s policies before making any moves.

Inflation has fallen in recent months, dropping to 2.4% in March, the lowest level since last September. Yet excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation was 2.8%. Core prices often provide a better signal of where inflation is headed.

A key issue for the Fed is that the economy is very different now than it was during Trump’s first term. Back then inflation was actually below the Fed’s target. At that time, it was a “no-brainer” to cut rates, Bianchi said, if there was a threat of a recession, because inflation wasn’t an issue.

But now, tariffs will almost certainly lift prices in the coming months, at least temporarily. That raises the bar much higher for a Fed rate cut, Bianchi said.

Still, once there are clear signs the economy is deteriorating, such as a rising unemployment rate, the Fed will cut rates, regardless of what Trump does, economists said.

Trump on Monday accused Powell of often being “too late” with his rate decisions, but ironically the Fed may move more slowly this time because of the threat of higher prices from tariffs. Without clear evidence of a downturn, Fed officials would worry about being seen as giving in to political pressure from Trump if they cut.

“Powell knows the irreparable damage that would occur if it was perceived that he cut because he was forced to by Trump,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at PGIM Fixed Income.

The Fed now “will be even more delayed because I think you’re going get more of an inflation lift initially, before you get the more pronounced slowing in growth,” Porcelli said.

Either way it may take more than a Fed cut or two to bring down longer-term borrowing costs, Bianchi said.

“To really lower long-term rates you need to provide a stable macroeconomic environment, and right now we are not there yet,” he added.

By GIADA ZAMPANO

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis chose his place of burial in St. Mary Major Basilica, near an icon of the Madonna that he revered, because it reflects his “humble, simple and essential’’ life, the archbishop who administers the basilica said Friday.

Francis, who died Monday at age 88, will be buried in a niche tomb in the basilica on Saturday after his funeral in St. Peter’s Square about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) away.

Francis initially demurred when Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas suggested in May 2022 that he choose St. Mary Major as his last resting place. Makrickas had identified it because of the pontiff’s long association with the basilica, its ties to Francis’ Jesuit order, its artistic and spiritual heritage and links to the papacy. Seven other popes are buried there, but none since 1669.

At first, “he said no because popes are buried in St. Peter’s,” Makrickas told reporters on the steps of the basilica. “After a week, he called me to (his home at the Vatican) Santa Marta and he said ‘Prepare my tomb.’”

The pope later insisted that his tomb remain simple, stressing that people should still come to the basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary “to venerate the Madonna, not to see the tomb of a pope,” Makrickas said.

This photo rendition made available by the Vatican Press Office on Thursday, April 24, 2025, shows the project of the burial place inside St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome where late Pope Francis will be interred after his solemn funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. (Vatican Media via AP)

Marble from Liguria

Francis will be buried beneath a simple headstone made of marble from Liguria, the Italian region of his mother’s family, engraved with his name in Latin: Franciscus. Above it will hang a slightly enlarged replica of his pectoral cross, featuring raised images of a shepherd carrying a sheep over his shoulders and a dove, but no other adornments.

The tomb is placed in a niche next to the chapel where the Salus Populi Romani icon that the pope revered is located, and in a part of the basilica that was once a door to an adjacent palace where four popes lived. During his 12-year papacy, Francis would pray before the icon before and after each foreign trip.

The basilica also has significance for the Jesuit pope: It’s where the founder of the religious order, St. Ignatius Loyola, celebrated his first Mass on Christmas Day in 1538.

St. Mary Major is a pontifical basilica, one of four in Rome, and has never been “destroyed, damaged or burned” over the ages, with history dating back to the fifth century. Makrickas called it “a treasure chest of art and spirituality.”

Mary’s protection

Tens of thousands of faithful flocked here since Francis’ death on Monday, and hundreds stood patiently in line on Friday morning to explore the place where he will be buried, now cordoned off and obscured by plywood.

Carlos Taborda, 39, traveled to Europe from Brazil with his husband and a group of friends.

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“It was a coincidence to be in Italy now, for the pope’s death,” he said. “We paid homage to him yesterday in St. Peter’s and now we’re going to see the place where he’ll rest forever.”

Felicia Verawati, a 35-year-old nun from Indonesia, prayed in silence in front of the wooden box protecting Francis’ tomb.

“To me this pope was very special,” she said. “He would always come to pray in this church, I think because he could feel Mary’s protection here.”

St. Mary Major is perched on top of one of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built and its bell tower is the tallest in the capital.

While Francis’ tomb will be simple and essential, the basilica strikes visitors with its gilded wood ceilings and intricate mosaics adorning the floor of the central nave.

Special bond with youth

“I felt very close to Francis, I liked his kindness,” said 8-year-old Flavia Chiodaroli, who came to Rome with her parents from Pavia, in northern Italy. “I want to tell Francis I love him very much and I hope the next pope will be like him.”

Chiodaroli was among the many children and teens who visited St. Mary Major on Friday as part of the Jubilee of Teenagers, which was taking place in Rome despite Francis’ death. The event is expected to draw over 80,000 teenagers from all over the world to the Vatican to celebrate the special bond between Francis and youth.

The pope will start his final journey on Saturday morning from St. Peter’s Square – where his funeral will be attended by over 160 international delegations, including royals and world leaders.

His casket will be driven to St. Mary Major through Rome. The motorcade is expected to move slowly so that the public along the route can pay homage for the last time.

Upon arrival, Francis’ casket will be greeted by a group of Rome’s poor and needy people, those whom the pontiff felt closer to. Around 40 people — homeless, prisoners, migrants and transgenders — will salute the pope holding a white rose, just before his burial.

“The poor have a special place in the heart of the Holy Father, who chose the name Francis to never forget them,” the Vatican said.

Nicole Winfield contributed to this report

By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump can’t stop contradicting himself on his own tariff plans.

He says he’s on a path to cut several new trade deals in a few weeks — but has also suggested it’s “physically impossible” to hold all the needed meetings.

Trump has said he will simply set new tariff rates negotiated internally within the U.S. government over the next few weeks — although he already did that on his April 2 “Liberation Day,” which caused the world economy to shudder.

The Republican president says he’s actively negotiating with the Chinese government on tariffs — while the Chinese and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said talks have yet to start.

What should one believe? The sure bet is that uncertainty will persist in ways that employers and consumers alike expect to damage the economy and that leave foreign leaders scratching their heads in bewilderment.

And the consequences of all this tariffs turmoil are enormous.

Trump placed tariffs totaling 145% on China, leading China to retaliate with tariffs of 125% on the U.S. — essentially triggering a trade war between the world’s two largest economies with the potential to bring on a recession.

Trump’s negotiating trade deals with himself

The president told Time magazine in an interview released Friday that 20%, 30% or 50% tariffs a year from now would be a “total victory,” even though a financial market panic led him to temporarily reduce his baseline import taxes to 10% for 90 days while talks take place.

“The deal is a deal that I choose,” Trump said in the interview. “What I’m doing is I will, at a certain point in the not too distant future, I will set a fair price of tariffs for different countries.”

If that is confusing for the nation’s trading partners, it’s also sowing anxiety at home.

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The Federal Reserve’s beige book, a compilation of anecdotes from U.S. businesses prepared eight times a year, on Wednesday reported a huge spike in uncertainty among American companies that has caused them to pull back on hiring and investment in new projects. The word “uncertainty” cropped up 80 times, compared with 45 in early March and just 14 in January.

Beyond the idea that Trump plans to keep some level of tariffs in place, the world finance ministers and corporate executives who gathered this past week in Washington for the International Monetary Fund conference said in private discussions that the Trump administration was providing no real clarity on its goals for substantive talks.

“There’s not a coherent strategy at the moment on what the tariffs are supposed to achieve,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the GeoEconomics Center at The Atlantic Council. “My conversations with the ministers and governors this week at the IMF meetings have been they don’t understand completely what the White House wants, nor who they should be negotiating with.”

Other countries trying to get talks going

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, in an interview with broadcaster SRF released Friday, said after a meeting with Bessent that Switzerland would be one of 15 countries with which the United States plans to conduct “privileged” negotiations. But she said a memorandum of understanding would have to be reached for talks to formally begin.

She was happy to at least know whom to talk to, saying that “we have also been assigned a specific contact person. This is not easy in the U.S. administration.”

Nations are deploying various negotiating tactics.

The South Korean officials who met with their U.S. counterparts this week say they specifically asked for the tariffs to be lifted with the goal of working toward an agreement by July. The European Union has pushed for cutting tariffs to zero for both parties, though Trump objects to European countries charging a value-added tax, which is akin to a sales tax that he says hurts U.S. goods.

Trump continues to radiate optimism that negotiated deals with other countries will occur despite his claims that he will set his own deals and a lack of clarity about how the process goes forward.

“I’m getting along very well with Japan,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “We’re very close to a deal.”

As part of a deal with Japan, the Trump administration has publicly called on the Japanese government to change its auto safety standards that put a greater focus on pedestrian safety. But the steering wheels on autos sold in Japan are on the right-hand side, while U.S. automakers put their steering wheels on the left.

“I don’t think left-hand drive cars sell in Japan,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a parliamentary session this week.

“We want to make sure we aren’t seen as being unfair,” Ishiba said, suggesting a possibility of reviewing Japanese car safety standards.

Higher prices and shortages are likely

As Trump continues to make conflicting statements about tariffs, companies are actively looking at higher prices, lower sales and possibly bare shelves in stores due to fewer shipments from China.

Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, a supply chain company, said on the social media site X: “In the 3 weeks since the tariffs took effect, ocean container bookings from China to the United States are down over 60% industry wide.”

Consumers are getting notices via email and social media from retailers that lamps, furniture and other housewares will now include tariff-related charges.

The showerhead company Afina on Wednesday reported on a test to see if people would buy an American-made product that cost more than an import. Their Chinese-made filtered showerhead retails for $129, but to manufacture the same product domestically would take the price up to $239.

When customers on the company’s website were given a choice between a showerhead made in the USA or a cheaper one made in Asia, there were 584 purchases of the $129 model made abroad and not one sale of the domestically produced showerhead.

Ramon van Meer, Afina’s founder, concluded in his written analysis: “If policymakers and pundits want to rebuild American industry, they need to grapple with this truth: idealism doesn’t always survive contact with a price tag.”

AP economics writer Christopher Rugaber in Washington and AP writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and GISELA SALOMON

MIAMI (AP) — As hundreds of migrants crowded into the Krome Detention Center in Miami on the edge of the Florida Everglades, a palpable fear of an uprising set in among its staff.

As President Donald J. Trump sought to make good on his campaign pledge of mass arrests and removals of migrants, Krome, the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse, saw its prisoner population recently swell to nearly three times its capacity of 600.

“There are 1700 people here at Krome!!!!,” one U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee texted a co-worker last month, adding that even though it felt unsafe to walk around the facility nobody was willing to speak out.

That tension — fearing reprisal for trying to ensure more humane conditions — comes amid a battle in federal courts and the halls of Congress over whether the president’s immigration crackdown has gone too far, too fast at the expense of fundamental rights.

At Krome, reports have poured in about a lack of water and food, unsanitary confinement and medical neglect. With the surge of complaints, the Trump administration shut down three Department of Homeland Security oversight offices charged with investigating such claims.

A copy of the text exchange and several other documents were shared with The Associated Press by a federal employee on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Other documents include detainee complaints as well as an account of the arrival of 40 women at Krome, an all-male facility, in possible violation of a federal law to reduce the risk of prison rape.

There is a critical shortage of beds in detention facilities

Krome is hardly alone in a core challenge faced by other facilities: a lack of bed space. Nationwide, detentions have surged to nearly 48,000 as of March 23, a 21% increase from the already elevated levels at the end of the Biden administration. In recent weeks, they have mostly flatlined as efforts to deport many of those same migrants have been blocked by several lawsuits.

To address the shortage, ICE this month published a request for bids to operate detention centers for up to $45 billion as it seeks to expand to 100,000 beds from its current budget for about 41,000. As part of the build-out, the federal government for the first time is looking to hold migrants on U.S. Army bases — testing the limits of a more than century-old ban on military involvement in civilian law enforcement.

By some measures, Trumps’ controversial approach is working. Barely 11,000 migrants were encountered at the U.S.-Mexican border in March, their lowest level in at least a decade and down from 96,035 in December 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Other facilities have caps on the number of detainees

Krome is just one of five facilities that ICE directly runs — the others are in Buffalo, New York, Arizona and two in Texas — and can house detainees for more than 16 hours. After Trump took office, ICE had orders to round up migrants with few options on where to send them. The vast majority of bed space is leased from local prisons, jails or privately run facilities that have strict limits on how many detainees they are contractually obligated to accept.

As its concrete cellblocks began filling up, federal workers started documenting the worsening conditions in weekly reports for the Department of Homeland Security’s leadership. They worked their way up the chain through DHS’ Office of Immigration & Detention Ombudsman, an independent watchdog established by Congress during the first Trump administration to blunt the fallout from a string of scandals about treatment at detention facilities.

The office went through four ombudsmen in two months as Trump officials surged arrests with no apparent plan on where to send them. The situation worsened in mid-March, when the office’s 100 staffers — including a case manager at Krome — were placed on administrative leave in what officials described as an effort to remove roadblocks to enforcement.

“Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.

Around the same time, Krome’s chaos spilled into public view. Images secretly shot on a cellphone and posted on TikTok showed a group of men sleeping on concrete floors and under tables with little more than their shoes as pillows.

“We are practically kidnapped,” Osiris Vázquez, his eyes bloodshot due to a lack of sleep, said in the grainy video, which garnered 4.4 million views. “We don’t want likes. We want help. Please!”

Vázquez, who was detained while driving home from a construction job near Miami, said he shared for two weeks a small room with some 80 men. Showers and phone calls weren’t allowed, the fetid-smelling bathrooms were left unattended and food was restricted to peanut butter sandwiches.

“There was no clock, no window, no natural light,” recalled Vázquez in an interview. “You lost all notion of time, whether it’s day or night.”

Eventually, Vázquez decided to self-deport. But his nightmare didn’t end. Once back in his hometown of Morelia, Mexico, where he hadn’t set foot in almost a decade, he had to be hospitalized twice for a respiratory infection he says he caught at Krome.

“Everyone I know got sick. We were so close together,” said Vázquez.

It could’ve been worse. Since Trump returned to the White House, three detainees have died while in ICE custody — two of them at Krome.

The latest, Maksym Chernyak, died after complaining to his wife about overcrowding and freezing conditions. The 44-year-old Ukrainian entered the U.S. legally with his wife in August under a humanitarian program for people fleeing the country’s war with Russia.

He was sent to Krome after an arrest in south Florida for domestic violence and immediately got sick with a chest cold. After being monitored for a week with high blood pressure, on Feb. 18, at 2:33 a.m., he was taken to a hospital for seizure-like vomiting and shaking. An ICE report said he appeared intoxicated and unresponsive at times. Two days later, he died.

Other than acetaminophen, he received no medication to treat the blood pressure, according to a two-page ICE report about Chernyak’s death. An autopsy listed the cause of death as complications from a stroke aggravated by obesity.

Chernyak’s widow said that before her husband’s detention he was a “strong, healthy man.” Without a translator, she said, her husband struggled to communicate with guards about his deteriorating health.

“They saw his condition, but they ignored him,” said Oksana Tarasiuk in an interview. “If he wasn’t put in Krome, I’m sure that he would still be alive.”

ICE, in a statement, didn’t comment on specific allegations of mistreatment but said it adjusts its operations as needed to uphold its duty to treat individuals with dignity and respect.

“These allegations are not in keeping with ICE policies, practices and standards of care,” the agency said. “ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.”

Attorneys said that in recent days, Krome has transferred out a number of detainees and conditions have improved. But that could just be shifting problems elsewhere in the migration detention system, immigration attorneys and advocates say.

Some 20 miles east of Krome, at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami, correctional officers last week had to deploy flash bang grenades, pepper spray paint balls and stun rounds to quell an uprising by detainees, two people familiar with the matter told the AP.

The incident occurred as a group of some 40 detainees waited almost eight hours to be admitted into the facility as jail officers miscounted the number of individuals handed over by ICE, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. As confusion reigned, the arriving detainees, some from Jamaica, ripped a fire sprinkler from a ceiling, flooding a holding cell, and took correctional officers’ batons, according to the people.

The federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the facility, would not confirm details of the incident but said that at no time was the public at risk.

“That has put a massive strain over our staff,” said Kenny X. Castillo, the president of the union representing workers at FDC Miami. “We are doing the job of two agencies in one building.”

Detentions drive profits

Trump’s administration has yet to reveal his plans for mass deportations even as he seeks to eliminate legal status for 1 million migrants previously granted humanitarian parole or some other form of temporary protection. The latest ICE data suggests so-called removal of migrants is actually below levels at the end of the Biden administration.

That means detentions are likely to rise and, with facilities at capacity, the need to house all the detainees will get more urgent. Spending on new facilities is a boon for federal contractors, whose stock prices have surged since Trump’s election. But finding workers willing to carry out Trump’s policy remains a major challenge.

Only a handful of applicants showed up at a recent hiring fair in Miami organized by Akima Global Services, a $2 billion federal contractor that staffs several immigrant detention centers, including Krome.

“Many of these facilities have been chronically understaffed for years,” said Michelle Brané, an immigration attorney and the last ombudsman during the Biden administration. “These are not easy jobs and they aren’t pleasant places to work.”

On Thursday, advocates led by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization filed a lawsuit against DHS seeking to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to shutter the oversight offices.

Krome has a history of substandard conditions

Allegations of substandard conditions are nothing new at Krome.

The facility was set up as essentially the nation’s first migrant detention center in the 1970s to process the large number of boat refugees fleeing Haiti. Before that, almost no migrants were detained for more than a few days.

In the early 2000s, the facility was wracked by harrowing accounts of guards sexually assaulting or coercing sexual favors from female prisoners. Several guards were criminally charged.

But more recently, the facility appeared to have turned a corner, with ICE even inviting the media to tour a first-of-its-kind mental health facility.

Then it changed abruptly.

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The facility housed 740 men and one woman on March 31, according to the latest ICE data, which reflects only the midnight count on the last day of the month. That’s up 31% from just before Trump took office. ICE refused to disclose Krome’s current capacity because of security concerns.

So far this year, the ombudsman’s office has received more than 2,000 inmate complaints, according to the federal employee.

Brané said she worries that detainee deaths, which started to rise during the Biden administration as arrests surged, could spike without anyone on the ground to investigate complaints of mistreatment.

“To my knowledge, everything was just frozen and people were told to go home,” said Brané. “If you’re ramping up, you’re taking away the oversight and you’re increasing the number of people you’re detaining, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Following Chernyak’s death, a grassroots coalition of immigration activists and far-left groups organized a demonstration on the highway leading to Krome’s entrance calling for the closure of the center. A few hundred protesters showed up, some holding pictures of migrants “kidnapped” by ICE and signs that read “American Gulag, American Shame” and “Immigrants Make America Great.”

This month, Miami Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, wrote Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem requesting a tour of the facility. The DHS media office didn’t reply to an email asking whether Noem had granted her request. In addition, 49 Democrats in Congress have also written Noem demanding to know how the agency intends to ease overcrowding at ICE facilities.

Huber Argueta-Perez said he saw many of those same conditions during his detention at Krome last month. The 35-year-old Guatemalan, who has lived in the U.S. for almost two decades, was detained March 10 after dropping off his two American daughters at school in Miami. He spent nine days sleeping on the concrete floor of a small, overcrowded room. He said he got feverishly sick from the cold but was repeatedly denied a sweater and medicines.

“We didn’t fit,” Argueta-Perez, who was deported March 19, said in an interview from Guatemala. “But the more we complained, the worse was the punishment.”

AP writers Michael Sisak in New York and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.