by RAY LEWIS | The National News Desk
Thu, May 14, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Updated Thu, May 14, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made an unsuccessful last-minute pitch Wednesday to stop Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, made an unsuccessful last-minute pitch Wednesday to stop Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as head of the Federal Reserve.
The lawmaker said in a social media post before the chamber approved Warsh, whom President Donald Trump nominated earlier this year, that the central bank must keep Jerome Powell as its chair to weather executive overreach and challenging economic conditions.
The Trump administration has investigated Powell over cost overruns and threatened to fire him for not aligning with the president’s economic agenda, which has delivered modest growth but struggled to substantially reduce inflation.
“The more Trump interferes with an independent Fed, the more chaos he injects into the markets,” Schumer wrote on X. “With his disastrous war and failed economic agenda, Trump will only seek to exert more pressure on the Fed to manipulate interest rates to his own political advantage. Appointing a new Fed chair amid this chaos would further undermine the Fed’s independence.”
Powell rejected Trump’s demands to set interest rates at levels he desires, citing economic conditions that have struggled to improve over the course of the president’s second term. Warsh told senators last month that Trump hadn’t made the same demand and that he wouldn’t be the president’s puppet.
Do you have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.
