BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said he is turning to “prayer” in hopes that Jerome Powell will leave the Federal Reserve after his term as chair ends this month – but admitted that Powell may not go if he’s bent on “poking the president in the eye.”
“Prayer, Lord! We need some prayer on this issue,” Scott told me during a fireside chat at the Milken conference here while clenching his fists together and looking at the ceiling.
“Honestly, I think it’s going to be his decision … but I do think he’s maybe just poking the president in the eye a little bit.”
Scott also suggested that Powell may be looking to impede the agenda of Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to succeed him when his term ends in May. Warsh has been a staunch critic of Powell and plans to steer the Fed away from issues like ESG and a massive expansion of the agency’s balance sheet, both hallmarks of the Powell years.
It was Scott who in June 2025 asked the question about the Fed’s pricey new headquarters during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. Powell’s dismissive testimony about the $2.5 billion renovation led to a controversial DOJ investigation about his handling of the project.
“One of the things that we were hunting when we were looking at it was, why do we need a beehive garden at the top of the Fed’s building,” Scott said. “So there are aspects of the renovations that were challenging to absorb as a taxpayer.”
Scott also told me during our sit down that Jay Clayton, the Manhattan US Attorney and former Securities and Exchange Commission chair during Trump’s first term, devised a compromise to convince Tillis to change his vote and move Warsh out of committee.
Specifically, it was Clayton, a close confidant of the president, who came up with the idea to end the DOJ criminal probe and instead allow the Fed inspector general to look at the cost overruns of the headquarters. The IG could then recommend to the DOJ to probe Powell if warranted.
The move convinced Sen. Thom Tillis to allow Warsh’s nomination to move out of committee, but it didn’t appease Powell who recently announced he’s staying on as a governor – something he’s legally entitled to do until 2028 – unless he’s free of any potential charges.
Scott says while he doesn’t believe Powell acted criminally in his testimony even as some in the White House believe there could be negligence not just in his testimony, but in mismanagement of the renovations.
“It is certainly incredibly over budget, but the one thing we should do is give the IG an opportunity to dig into all the information, to figure it out,” he added.
Scott repeated his plea for Powell – who has said he will remain a governor at the central bank until he’s in the clear – to leave the agency when his chairmanship ends in May, calling it a “significant mistake” that would break with decades of tradition if he chose to stay.
“If you believe in the independence of the Fed” and what’s in the “best interest of the country for us to have a Fed focused on their dual mandate and not on who’s in charge.”
A Fed rep said Powell addressed this at his news conference and that he wouldn’t be some “dissident.”
Scott said it’s unclear what Trump – who has famously sparred with Powell over interest rates – can do to force Powell out other than prayer. The Post has reported that some people close to Trump have recommended rescinding his parking privileges to putting his new office in the basement of the Fed building.
Scott laughed off those suggestions.
“Yeah, I think the biggest opportunity to get Jay Powell to leave is just the truth,” he said. “Truth is, you don’t want your predecessor having impact on the Federal Reserve.”
