Trump risks 'buyer's remorse' with Warsh

Federal Reserve chief nominee Kevin Warsh said on Tuesday (April 21) he had made no promises to U.S. President Donald Trump about cutting interest rates, as he tried to assure U.S. senators mulling his confirmation to lead the U.S. central bank that he would act independently of the White House while pursuing broad reforms.

In a hearing that ranged from Warsh's calls for "regime change" at the Fed to contentious exchanges over his personal finances, the 56-year-old lawyer and financier said that in his conversations with Trump about the job, "the president never asked me to commit to interest rate cuts ... he did not demand it ... the president never asked me to commit to any such thing nor would I do so."

Trump, who nominated Warsh for the top Fed job, has repeatedly expressed his confidence that his pick will deliver lower rates if confirmed, and said in a CNBC interview just prior to the hearing on Tuesday that he would be disappointed if it didn't happen.

Warsh is considered likely to be confirmed, but the timing of any Senate approval remains unclear. Republican Senator Thom Tillis, in an unusual turn, used his time during the hearing not to ask questions of Warsh, but to detail why he would delay the confirmation until the Trump administration drops an ongoing criminal probe of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell over a renovation of the central bank's headquarters in Washington.

Tillis' hold on the nomination could leave Warsh unconfirmed and Powell remaining as Fed chief even after his tenure in the top job ends on May 15.

-Aleksandra Michalska/Reuters