- Warren also said the Trump administration wants to take over the Fed and fill it with President Trump’s “sock puppets who will lie to the American people about the economy.”
- Earlier this week, Hassett slammed a recent paper from the New York Fed that examined who is ultimately paying for President Trump’s tariffs.
- He called the paper an embarrassment and the worst one he has read so far in the history of the central banking system.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has reportedly called on President Donald Trump’s nominees for the Federal Reserve Chair to commit to protecting the central bank’s independent research.
According to a Bloomberg report citing a Warren statement, the Senator said White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s criticism of a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York did not come as a surprise.
“Any nominee to the Federal Reserve must commit under oath before Congress that they would not silence the Fed’s independent research, including at its regional reserve banks, or punish the experts for simply doing their jobs,” Warren said, according to the report.
Warren is the top Democrat leader on the Senate Banking Committee.
She also said the Trump administration wants to take over the Fed and fill it with President Trump’s “sock puppets who will lie to the American people about the economy.”
President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair in late January. “I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is “central casting,” and he will never let you down,” he said.
What Did Hassett Say?
Earlier this week, Hassett slammed a recent paper from the New York Fed that examined who is ultimately paying for President Trump’s tariffs. He called the paper an embarrassment and the worst one he has read so far in the history of the central banking system.
“The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined, because what they’ve done is that they’ve put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that’s highly partisan, based on analysis that wouldn’t be accepted in a first semester econ class,” the NEC Director said.
He added that the Trump administration’s tariff policies had little impact on prices while improving people's standard of living in the U.S.
Fed’s Kashkari Calls Out Hassett
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Thursday called out Hassett’s comments about the NY Fed study, saying it was another move by the Trump administration to undermine the independence of the Fed.
“This is just another step to try to compromise the Fed's independence. Over the past year we've seen multiple attempts,” he said at the 2026 Midwest Economic Outlook Summit in Fargo, North Dakota.
“Politicians, conservative and liberal, would rather have monetary policy that serves their political needs in the moment,” the Minneapolis Fed President added.
Meanwhile, U.S. equities declined in Friday’s pre-market trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down by 0.13%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) fell 0.15%, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) declined 0.12%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘neutral’ territory.
The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) was up by 0.06% at the time of writing.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.