One of Donald Trump's most senior economic advisers has said a group of economists should be "disciplined" for a Federal Reserve study which argued that US firms and consumers have borne the brunt of the president's tariffs.
National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the report, published by the New York Federal Reserve, was "an embarrassment" and "the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system".
It found that last year, 90% of the cost of increased tariffs was paid for by US companies and shoppers.
Hassett's comments to CNBC are the latest attack by the Trump administration on the Federal Reserve which have, until now, been focused on interest rates.
The paper by the New York Fed was released as the US Supreme Court weighs a legal challenge to Trump's sweeping global tariffs.
US firms and consumers continue to bear the bulk of the economic burden of the high tariffs imposed in 2025."
Hassett, who is director of the National Economic Council, said that prices had fallen, inflation was lower and "real wages were up $1,400 on average last year, which means that consumers were made better off by the tariffs".
He told CNBC: "The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined, because what they've done is they've put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that's highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn't be accepted in a first-semester econ class."
The New York Fed declined to comment.
Its findings align with other recent tariff analyses. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, an independent research firm in Germany, said in a report last month that it had found "near-complete pass-through of tariffs to US import prices".
The National Bureau of Economic Research also found that the pass-through of tariffs was "almost 100%", meaning the US - not the countries exporting goods to America - is paying for the increase in prices.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly bemoaned the legal battle over his trade strategy. The small businesses and US states challenging his administration's tariffs claim that the president has overstepped his authority.
The Supreme Court could rule on the case as soon as this Friday.
The US central bank, which sets interest rates, has been under pressure from Trump to lower borrowing costs more aggressively.
Federal prosecutors recently opened a criminal investigation over testimony the central bank's chair, Jerome Powell, gave to the Senate about renovations to Fed buildings.
The president has also taken aim at Fed governor Lisa Cook, whom he wants to remove.
The Fed has been monitoring the effects of tariffs on inflation. Officials voted to hold interest rates steady at their meeting in January, citing signs of stabilisation in the labour market.
At the same time, inflation in the US cooled last month, according to the Department of Labor, as prices for energy and used cars fell.
The retreat could add fuel to arguments by Trump and others that the Fed was in a position to cut interest rates without stoking a new flare-up in prices.
But some analysts have warned that further progress toward the Fed's 2% inflation target could stall in the months ahead if companies start to pass on the costs of tariffs more fully to consumers.
Minutes from the Fed's January meeting, released on Wednesday, underscored division among Fed officials as to the path forward for interest rates this year.
Some even cautioned about a risk of rate hikes if inflationary pressures persist.
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