Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made clear Thursday that if President Donald Trump chooses to take legal action against his own Fed pick over interest rates, that decision would be entirely up to him.
Bessent made the remarks during an exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, after she pressed him to rule out legal action against Kevin Warsh if the nominee declined to cut interest rates.
"That is up to the president," Bessent told Warren.
Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, was nominated by Trump on Friday.
Warren's line of questioning followed Trump's joke at a Washington dinner over the weekend that he would sue Warsh if interest rates did not come down fast enough.
"Can you commit, right here and now, that Trump's Fed nominee, Kevin Warsh, will not be sued, will not be investigated by the Department of Justice, if he doesn't cut interest rates exactly the way that Donald Trump wants?" Warren asked.
After Bessent declined to make that commitment, Warren pushed back.
"That was supposed to be the softball," she said. "If this was a joke, why not just say so?"
"It was a joke," Bessent responded. "And he made a joke about you too, Sen. Warren. Got a lot of laughs, got a lot of laughs."
Trump made the quip about Warsh during a roast-style speech at the Alfalfa Club last weekend. When asked about it later Saturday night aboard Air Force One, the president brushed it off, saying, "It's a roast."
Trump added that he did not seek any commitments from Warsh in exchange for the nomination.
"I could have done that I guess if I wanted, but I didn't," he said.
Bessent added Thursday that Warsh is "highly qualified" for the role.
Trump has long clashed with outgoing Federal Reserve Jerome Powell for keeping rates too high, accusing the Fed of slowing economic growth and undercutting his economic agenda.
On Wednesday, Trump reinforced that stance in an NBC News interview, saying he would not have selected Warsh if the nominee supported raising rates.
"He would not have gotten the job, no," Trump said.
Warsh, who needs to be confirmed by the Senate, is expected to take the reins as Fed chair after Powell's term ends in mid-May.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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