Zaid

He's called him enemy of the people.

He even called him a jerk.

But things really escalated this past week when Jerome Powell dropped a video on Sunday night announcing that the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve and into Jerome Powell.

This investigation is supposedly about the cost overruns on the Fed's headquarter renovations.

But Jerome Powell made it clear that this criminal investigation was politically motivated because the Fed refused to drop interest rates to the level that the president wanted.

I mean, I watched the video on Sunday night.

It was shocking because it was the first time where Jerome Powell responded to the relentless attacks by Trump.

Now, I should point out that presidents in the past have pressured the Fed before.

Lyndon B. Johnson did it.

Richard Nixon also did it.

They wanted lower aides to help their poll numbers.

But a threat of a criminal investigation against a sitting Fed chair is uncharted territory.

Now, there's been pretty strong backlash to this investigation.

Jerome Powell has received bipartisan support from politicians and former Fed officials and even Wall Street veterans.

In fact, Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who sits on the banking committee, says he's going to block any nominee to replace Jerome Powell until this investigation is resolved.

There's also Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

He weighed in this week saying that anything that undermines the Fed's independence is probably not a great idea.

So we'll see if this bipartisan backlash is enough for the DOJ to back down.

What I don't understand, though, is like the timing of all this, because remember, Jerome Powell's term as Fed chair ends in May and Trump is going to replace him with someone who probably shares Trump's views on interest rates.

Right now, the leading candidates are Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, and Kevin Hassett, Trump's economic advisor.