Nick Timiraos

Kevin Warsh wears these very well-tailored suits that don't require a belt.

He definitely...

comes out of central casting.

Trump is right about that.

Well, so he inherits an economy that has been doing okay on the surface, but job growth has slowed a lot.

And there's a big mystery there.

Is it slowing because we have less immigration?

Is that a problem that we're not adding a lot of jobs if the unemployment rate is staying stable?

The Fed is now entering its sixth year with inflation above its 2% goal.

And if you say you're going to meet a goal and you go for many years without hitting it, does that erode your credibility?

And then apart from that, there are just enormous questions over what effect AI is going to have on the labor force and what can a central bank do?

that raises interest rates to deal with a normal business cycle do if you're entering some sort of big structural shift.

One in particular, Tom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, has said he will not vote for any Fed confirmation.

until this whole probe is resolved.

And he repeated that view on Friday morning after Trump's announcement.

He said, Warsh is qualified, but my vow still stands.

I'm not going to move any Fed nominees until this probe is resolved.

gets resolved.

And so it seems very likely now that the White House and the Department of Justice are going to have to deal with this here because otherwise it's possible that they just won't get the new Fed chair confirmed by May.

Well, so more recently, Warsh has sort of poo-pooed or waved away concerns from the central banking priesthood that says you really shouldn't have a president attacking the Fed in this way.