President Trump stood in the White House on May 22 and told his hand-picked Federal Reserve chair to ignore him. Or at least, to ignore anyone trying to lean on the central bank politically.
“I want Kevin to be totally independent,” Trump said during the swearing-in ceremony for Kevin Warsh, the 56-year-old former Fed governor who now holds the most powerful unelected job in the American economy. It was the first time a Fed chair had been sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan’s appointment in 1987.
A narrow confirmation, a wide mandate
Warsh’s path to the top of the Fed wasn’t exactly a coronation. The Senate confirmed him on May 13 with a 54-45 vote, a margin thin enough to suggest real skepticism about either the nominee or the process that produced him.
He replaces Jerome Powell, whose tenure became defined by an increasingly public tug-of-war with Trump over the direction of monetary policy. Powell’s sin, in the president’s view, was not cutting rates fast or deep enough.
