Republican Senator Tillis Supports Warsh for Fed Chair, Powell's Term Expires May 15
After the U.S. Department of Justice canceled its criminal investigation into current Fed Chair Powell, Republican Senator Thom Tillis announced his support for advancing Kevin Warsh's confirmation as the next Fed Chair.
Tillis stated he has received the necessary assurances and looks forward to supporting Warsh's confirmation, calling him an outstanding nominee and emphasizing that it is time for the Fed to focus on its core mission without interference.
In market dynamics, after key members of the Senate Banking Committee lifted their obstruction, investors expect Warsh to be confirmed more quickly and to push for a more dovish monetary policy. This event-driven shift has led funds to move from interest rate uncertainty to risk assets and the stock market, benefiting Wall Street and Trump allies, while continuity of Powell's policy faces pressure.
Source: Public Information
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Thom Tillis, previously a member of the Senate Banking Committee, had repeatedly obstructed Warsh's confirmation citing the DOJ's criminal investigation into Powell's Fed headquarters renovation project. This reflects his long-standing concern over the independence of the Fed and the boundaries of executive intervention, having publicly criticized the investigation as "bogus" and called for a swift conclusion during hearings.
On the capital front, Tillis's removal of the obstruction accelerates Warsh's confirmation process. The Trump administration pressured through the DOJ investigation and ultimately made concessions, motivated to eliminate transitional barriers after Powell's term expires on May 15, shifting Fed leadership towards the more growth-friendly and lower-rate Warsh to align with its fiscal and regulatory agenda and create certainty for subsequent capital allocation.
Similar to the intra-party coordination during Trump's nomination of Powell in 2017-2018, and the bargaining of several Republican senators in 2025 using independence as leverage, Tillis's current actions indicate that the Fed Chair confirmation is transitioning from the politicization of investigations to rapid partisan confirmation, consistent with historical cycles of executive branch pressure on the central bank.
Essentially, this represents a regulatory change: the Trump administration's combination of DOJ investigation, case withdrawal, and personnel replacement shifts the actual control over Fed appointments from traditional independent processes towards executive preferences, utilizing key Senate veto points to force judicial compromises, thus restructuring from Powell's relatively autonomous monetary policy to one more susceptible to White House growth objectives.