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federal reserve
‘Wall Street Sweetheart’ Kevin Warsh Picked to Run Fed After Changing Views to Match Trump’s
"Warsh showed his true colors during the 2008 global financial crisis, helping bail out big banks while millions of families lost their jobs and homes," said one critic.
Jan 30, 2026
Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, evidently "passed the loyalty test" put forward by President Donald Trump, said US Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday after Warsh was named the president's nominee to lead the central bank.
Trump selected Warsh amid his longtime push for the Federal Reserve to aggressively cut interest rates as the labor market remains weak and inflation is persistently high.
During his time at the Fed from 2006-11, Warsh was seen as a monetary policy hawk, opposing policies aimed at stimulating the economy.
But in recent weeks, as Trump has considered several potential successors to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose term is up in May, the president has indicated that Warsh has changed his views on lowering borrowing costs to match those of the White House.
"He thinks you have to lower interest rates," Trump said in December.
Warsh called for “regime change in the conduct of policy" at the central bank last year as the president was considering him as well as longtime economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller, and BlackRock executive Rick Rieder.
With families across the US struggling to afford the rising cost of groceries, electricity, and other essentials, the progressive advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative emphasized that Trump selected a nominee "with a record of siding with financiers over workers."
Warsh played a key role in coordinating the Fed's response to the 2008 financial crisis, arranging the bailout of the insurance giant American International Group and brokering the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.
"Warsh showed his true colors during the 2008 global financial crisis, helping bail out big banks while millions of families lost their jobs and homes," said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork. “Kevin Warsh is a disastrous choice to oversee monetary policy.”
Now that Warsh appears to have changed his views on interest rates to match Trump's, his nomination "is the latest step in Trump’s plan to ensure the Fed does what he tells it to, not what’s best for American families," said Jacquez, a former Obama administration official.
"Trump chose Kevin Warsh for Fed chair because his father-in-law is a billionaire donor, the brains behind Trump’s idiotic scheme to invade Greenland. He also chose him because Warsh has shown willingness to wildly alter his views on monetary policy based on who is in the White House."
The nomination was announced weeks after Powell issued a stinging rebuke to Trump's Department of Justice following the news that the DOJ was threatening him with criminal charges over his testimony regarding renovations at the Federal Reserve building—charges that Powell said were a pretext for punishing him over his refusal to bend to Trump's demand for lowered interest rates.
Trump has also tried to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed's board of governors. The Supreme Court heard arguments this month in the case regarding the attempted dismissal, and appeared skeptical that it could legally move forward.
This week, the Fed opted to hold interest rates at 3.5-3.75%, above the 1% level Trump has called for.
Warsh is currently a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University and works with billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.
After the DOJ launched its criminal probe into Powell this month, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he would not support any nominee to succeed the chairman until the DOJ's investigation was resolved.
Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday that "no Republican purporting to care about Fed independence should agree to move forward with this nomination until Trump drops his witch hunts" that have targeted Powell and Cook.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) also pointed out that the selection of Warsh could be Trump's latest move in his push for US control of Greenland. Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, a daughter of longtime Trump friend and Estée Lauder Companies heir Ronald Lauder, who first proposed that the vast, strategically located Arctic island should belong to the US instead of the kingdom of Denmark.
"Trump chose Kevin Warsh for Fed chair because his father-in-law is a billionaire donor, the brains behind Trump’s idiotic scheme to invade Greenland," Beyer said. "He also chose him because Warsh has shown willingness to wildly alter his views on monetary policy based on who is in the White House."
"The Senate should note these bad qualifications and remember Warsh’s awful track record at the Fed during the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession," the congressman added. "These concerns along with Trump’s attacks on the Fed mean this nominee must face hard questions about independence and monetary policy. Warsh can’t just get a rubber stamp."
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Scott Bessent’s Tragic Transformation
Instead of a principled voice for sound economic policies and principles, Bessent has become a cheerleader for Trump’s dubious financial moves.
Jan 22, 2026
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s job is to calm the economic fears that President Donald Trump creates. He has followed a curious journey to get there, and now he’s sacrificing his integrity and legacy to remain.
Stage 1: Democratic Fundraiser
Born in a small South Carolina town, Bessent, 63, graduated from Yale College in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Eventually he went to work for Soros Fund Management—founded by the Republicans’ favorite Democratic demon, George Soros.
Bessent is openly gay, married since 2011 to a former New York City prosecutor, and has been a strong advocate for gay rights and marriage equality. In 2000, he supported Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, co-hosting a fundraiser for him in East Hampton, New York. He donated $2,300 to Barack Obama’s campaign in 2007. Although he donated $25,000 to support Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations, by then he was a major donor to Republican candidates.
Stage 2: Republican Oligarch
Bessent returned to work for Soros in 2011 as chief investment officer but left in 2016 to form his own fund for which Soros provided a $2 billion anchor. From 2018 through 2021, as the global stock market broke records, the performance of Bessent’s fund was mediocre. Still, he amassed an estimated wealth of $600 million, although some reports refer to him as one of “Trump’s billionaires.”
Bessent and his husband have two children studying in Europe. As they process the European reaction to Trump, they may ask him what he is doing to make the world a better place.
Bessent donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration in 2016, but was not part of the first term’s inner circle. When Trump left office in disgrace after January 6 and under the cloud of other legal woes, most business leaders were reluctant to support him publicly. But as Bessent said on Roger Stone’s radio show in 2024: “I was all in for President Trump. I was one of the few Wall Street people backing him.”
The 68 senators who voted to confirm Bessent as Treasury secretary probably hoped that, like Marco Rubio at the State Department, Bessent would be an “adult in the room.” Unlike other members of the clown car comprising Trump’s cabinet, Bessent would save the nation from Trump’s worst financial impulses.
After all, the country has never had a president who declared bankruptcy six times (although Trump told the Washington Post that he had only four because he counted the first three bankruptcies as one).
Stage 3 :Trump Sycophant
Instead of a principled voice for sound economic policies and principles, Bessent has become a cheerleader for Trump’s dubious financial moves. At times, he has resorted to rhetorical gymnastics to explain away Trump’s plain language. For example:
- On April 2, 2025, on what Trump called “Liberation Day,” the president announced his first round of universal tariffs. The thoughtless imposition of across-the-board tariffs was often nonsensical, such as tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica and on countries with which the US has a trade surplus. Trump sent global markets into a tailspin and US interest rates upward. Five days later, Bessent admitted that he was surprised by the “impatience” of commentators and the financial markets. He tried to stop the carnage by saying that Trump’s bizarre action was simply a clever negotiating strategy—which made little sense to the penguins of Antarctica.
- In September, as major US companies announced the loss of billions of dollars resulting from Trump’s tariffs, Bessent dismissed their concerns.
- Bessent—who is not an economist—has parroted the Trump line that tariffs are not a tax on American businesses and consumers because foreign exporters bear the cost. A broad consensus of economists has concluded otherwise, and a major study released on January 19 found that consumers and businesses—not foreign exporters—bear 96% of tariff costs.
- As Trump touted tariffs as a boon to manufacturing, Bessent acknowledged that the US has been losing manufacturing jobs. But he insists that better days are coming.
- When Trump tried to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, Bessent said that the Fed’s independence was important, but that Trump had the right to fire her. After reportedly trying to persuade Trump not to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Bessent has now become one of Powell’s most vocal attackers—along with Trump’s Justice Department.
- When the US Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case challenging Trump’s tariffs, Bessent sat in the front row. Now he’s criticizing Powell’s decision to attend the oral argument in Cook’s case.
- Most recently, Trump blamed his threat of a global trade war on Denmark’s refusal to let the US take over its longstanding territory, Greenland. In a social media post on Saturday morning, January 17, Trump announced new 10% tariffs on Denmark and the countries who stood with it in resisting Trump’s demand: Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, and Finland, effective February 1. He threatened to increase the levies to 25% on June 1, unless Europe capitulated.
- Sunday evening, January 18, NPR’s Nick Schifrin posted a letter that Trump had previously sent to Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre. Trump revealed that after not winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize “for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS,” he “no longer feel[s] an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America… The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
- Hours after the public disclosure of Trump’s message, Bessent held an impromptu press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He tried to explain away Trump’s childish fit: “I think it’s a complete canard that the president will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize,” Bessent asserted. Accusing Trump’s critics of “hysteria,” Bessent said, “What I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out.” His words fell flat, and he looked as uncomfortable as he must have felt.
- In Brussels on January 21, the European Parliament protested Trump’s demand by suspending its work on the previously negotiated US-EU trade deal. Meanwhile at Davos, Trump delivered a 90-minute screed that insulted many European leaders by name and reiterated his demand for Greenland. But later that day, Trump posted that he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had worked out a “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.” And he walked back the new European tariffs he’d threatened to impose on February 1.
Stage 4: The Coming Quest for Rehabilitation
Bessent seems destined to follow the paths of other Trump enablers who eventually left the fold, like former Attorney General William Barr. He neutered the Mueller Report on Russian election interference during the 2016 election, only to resign 18 months later as January 6 approached. Eventually, Bessent will find himself on the outs with Trump, write a book, pursue a public speaking “redemption tour,” and explain that his government service saved the country from Trump’s worst impulses.
Such a rationalization rings hollow.
Bessent and his husband have two children studying in Europe. As they process the European reaction to Trump, they may ask him what he is doing to make the world a better place. The answer is also his legacy: In the process of sacrificing his personal integrity, Bessent has disserved the nation.
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Powell Gives Extraordinary Show of Support to Fed Governor Targeted by Trump
The president is trying to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud. Critics say he's targeting another one of his political foes.
Jan 19, 2026
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reportedly plans to attend Wednesday's US Supreme Court oral arguments in the case involving President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.
A "person familiar with the matter" told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Powell would attend the high court session in the face of Trump's unprecedented effort to oust one of the seven members of the Fed's governing board.
Last August, Trump announced his termination of Cook—an appointee of former President Joe Biden—for alleged fraud, accusing her of signing two primary residence mortgages within weeks of each other. An investigation published last month by ProPublica revealed that Trump did the same thing that he's accusing Cook of doing.
Cook denies any wrongdoing, has not been charged with any crime, and has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to fire her. In October, the Supreme Court declined to immediately remove Cook and agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.
In what many critics allege is an attempt by Trump to strong-arm the Fed into further interest rate cuts, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this month served the central bank with grand jury subpoenas related to Powell's congressional testimony on renovations to Fed headquarters in Washington, DC.
Powell—who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and whose four-year term as Fed chair ends May 15—responded by alleging that “the threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president."
"This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation," he added.
Trump is trying to install his puppets at the Fed.First by trying to fire Lisa Cook and rushing in his top econ adviser.Now by abusing the law to try to push Jerome Powell out for good.Next he'll nominate a new Chair—and Trump says “anybody that disagrees" with him is out.
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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) January 15, 2026 at 7:54 AM
In addition to Cook, Trump has targeted a number of Democrats with what critics say are dubious mortgage fraud claims.
Last November, a federal judge dismissed a DOJ criminal case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was charged with bank fraud and false statements regarding a property in Virginia. Critics called the charges against James—who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial crimes—baseless and politically motivated. A federal grand jury subsequently rejected another administration attempt to indict James.
The president has accused other political foes, including US Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell—both California Democrats who played key roles in both of the president’s House impeachments—of similar fraud. Swalwell is currently under formal criminal investigation. Both lawmakers deny the allegations.
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