Name: Top Trump aide ‘unhappy’ with fed chair investigation
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T17:11:29.000Z
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And Kristen, you know, just extraordinary amid so many extraordinary events that are happening, both large and seemingly small, what are you hearing about Scott Besant, the Treasury secretary, and

how unhappy he is about what Trump's doing here?

And just to touch on your point, I will get to Scott Bessant in one second.

But touch your point on the extraordinary here.

While it is a stunning development, it is not all that surprising.

This seems to have been in the works for quite some time.

If you look back in July, we saw Russ Vote, the head of Office of Management and Budget, essentially writing an open letter to Powell accusing him of lying to Congress.

We also saw President Trump instilling a number of his loyalists on the National Planning Committee.

That has since helped when it comes to the ballroom.

But initially that was in part to look into this matter, to look into what was going on with the Federal Reserve building and to ask a lot of pointed and public questions which seem to be leaning towards some kind of criminal investigation.

Now, Carolyn Levitt has said, said that President Trump at no time directed the Department of Justice to open this investigation.

But President Trump has made his feelings on Powell incredibly clear.

Now, when it comes to Scott Bessant, this itself is not that surprising.

Scott Bessant is part of the reason that President Trump had been backing down from that language about actually firing Powell.

Yes, he was continuing to over and over again berate Powell, insult him, but

he kind of stepped back from that firing talk.

And that's because Bessant had been in his ear, essentially telling him it is bad not only for US Markets, for the global economy, if you do fire Powell, even the threats of firing Powell are impacting the markets.

And Besson, I'm told, views the markets as his primary job.

Now, of course, if you look at the markets today, it doesn't seem as though they were that affected by this investigation.

But I am told that Besson was talking to people close to him, saying he was frustrated by this and by the idea of it potentially having a larger global impact.

Now, I will also tell you that I talked to a number of aides close to President Trump, as well as allies who say they swear that this is not political.

They believe that there should be some more investigation into this building, into the renovation and into the budget.

But of course, again, President Trump has made it clear how he feels about Jerome Powell in this position.

There are more Republicans voicing their opposition to a criminal probe against Fed Chair Jerome Powell, including the president's own treasury secretary, a source tells CNN Secretary Scott Bessant has told people he is unhappy with the criminal investigation opened by the Department of Justice into Powell.

That there are other Republicans who agree.

I don't, I don't like the idea of an investigation, a criminal investigation.

I support the independence of the, of the, of the Feds.

And I hope that this investigation wraps up very, very quickly.

I will be shocked if he has done anything wrong.

The Federal Reserve of the United States and the executive branch of the United get into a pissing contest.

We need it like we need a hole in their head.

Because sometimes when like a source tells, I can't tell if it's because the person in the center of it wants everyone to know this without saying it out loud or if we really are hearing about some discontent.

I think you've seen Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant be the one person in the cabinet that has registered some minuscule pushback.

Obviously we know that he was involved in the idea to pull back some of those tariffs after April because of some concerns about the bond market.

Something that we know that President Trump follows closely.

In other moments he has tried to push Trump perhaps in a different, maybe a little bit of a less direction, of course, because of not trying to spook the market and various things.

So I think that this is kind of well within the Treasury Secretary's lane.

Obviously he has been trying to plan a way to kind of usher Jay Powell out, bring him in, but

So I mean, the Wall Street Journal, they're calling President Trump would do himself and the country a big favor by firing those responsible for this fiasco.

And you've got someone like Senator Tillis saying, well, I'm not going to vote on this other stuff you want approved.

I mean there's just so many people saying this concern and it's not even Tillis.

I mean, I think you, all of those comments by other Republican senators as well was not as strong as what Senator Tillis said, but

We are on the countdown to four months for him not to be Fed chair anymore.

And this is an unwanted distraction I just don't understand what happened.

Is it going to lead him to staying on as governor longer?

There was some ide that he would both step down as both.

And now people who know Jay Powell said that this is just going to incentivize him perhaps to stay even longer while the American people are sitting at home going, what does this have to do with anything being cheaper for me?

And what are we doing in D.C. when we're invading countries?

Folks are getting shot in our streets and now we're going to go after the person in charge of the Fed?

Most folks don't even know what the Fed is arguing, that it's his monetary policy, it's his policy that is preventing them from affecting.

But you just said he'll be gone in four months.

This is a stupid move because he's going to be gone in four much if he'd have left it alone.

I have a strange way here is Ben Shapiro, co founder of the Daily Wire.

Is there evidence that Powell was stealing money or embezzling?

And why is it that the Trump administration, the two people who he seems to be focused on very much at the Federal Reserve, are people who have opposed his agenda?

You should not be targeting people based on specious investigations.

If it turns out that it's specious, the president should not be intervening in Federal Reserve policy in this way.

All it does is create uncertainty in an economy that is doing quite well by all available reports.

You've been catching up with lawmakers there.

There are a lot of questions from Republicans and Democrats alike, but

even House and Senate Republicans, they are.

They want more answers about what exactly is happening here and are worried about the implications for the independence of the Federal Reserve if this goes on for too long.

In fact, one of the regular comments that I've been getting all afternoon from Republican senators in particular is that they want this done quickly.

They want this investigation done quickly.

They want to move on, and they're worried about the implications of political interference with this critical agency.

That's a message that came from including one key senator, Senator Thom Tillis, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, which would consider any nomination to replace Jerome Powell.

And he's warning he will vote against Powell's successor if this is not done and done quickly.

Do you think the White House is trying to stop the independence of the Fed?

Somebody at doj, I mean, the President said he wasn't in the mix.

Another example of amateur hour, as far as I'm concerned.

What I'm going to do is drop any consideration for any board confirmation until it's done.

And Paul has been actually on the phone with some Republican senators in the last 24 hours or so.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who aligned herself with the concerns raised by Senator Thom Tillis, said that she had spoken with Powell.

Tillis also speaking with Powell and the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, also said that he wants us done quickly.