When Jerome Powell stepped down as chairman of the Federal Reserve in May, his relationship with Donald Trump could have been described as hostile at best. As a reminder, Trump spent years trashing the central banker for not lowering interest rates and then, when he did, not lowering them enough. Those attacks included but were not limited to the president calling Powell “a FOOL, who doesn’t have a clue”, “a very stupid person,” “a stubborn mule,” “a knucklehead,” a “numbskull,” and a “moron.” There was also that criminal investigation into office renovations, which was definitely about office renovations and certainly not meant to be a pressure tactic to get Powell to cut rates after name-calling didn’t work.
So how’s it going with Powell’s replacement, Kevin Warsh, who has thus far held rates steady and vowed during his Senate confirmation hearing that he would not be Trump’s “sock puppet”? Has he been subject to the same type of verbal abuse as his predecessor? Has he arrived home from a long day at the office to find a flaming bag of shit on his doorstep? Not exactly, and by not exactly we mean Trump is apparently head over heels for his new Fed chair, whose looks he reportedly gushes over and whom he treats with something akin to actual respect.
