Caffeinated Politics

In yet another example of ongoing excessive overreach by the Trump White House, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell comes under attack, the need for pushback is so obvious that even Senate Republicans have drawn a line in the sand. Failing to modulate Donald Trump’s absurd political pressure against the central bank, elected members of the upper chamber are now taking to the media.

The loudest warning shot against the White House came from Sen. Thom Tillis, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, who accused Trump’s advisers of deliberately trying to undercut the Fed’s independence and threatened to block the president’s nominees to the Fed until the investigation is “fully resolved.”

Sen. John Kennedy, another senior member of the Banking Committee, expressed frustration over the probe, which he warned could make it more expensive to borrow money.

“Litigation between the Federal Reserve and the executive branch of the United States government is going to cause interest rates to go up, not down,” he predicted.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who spoke with Powell on Monday morning, backed up Tillis’s sharp criticism of the Justice Department and called on Congress to investigate whether the administration is attempting to coerce the Fed into cutting rates more dramatically.

Powell got an important boost Monday from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who warned that any investigation of Powell “better be real” and “better be serious.” He said the matter should be wrapped up quickly to avoid undermining the central bank’s independence.

For all of 2025, one of the questions that failed to find a credible answer was why the majority party in the legislative branch employed self-castration? The almost shocking news today about GOP Senators taking a stand for the independence of the Federal Reserve and its chair underscores how meek and mild they have acted in relation to Trump on a bevy of critical issues.

A healthy democracy depends on the willingness of elected officials to assert their own constitutional authority, even when doing so is politically uncomfortable. That responsibility becomes especially urgent when a deluded and dangerous president signals a desire to wildly expand executive power beyond traditional limits. Many observers have pointed to the treatment of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as an instructive example.

The Federal Reserve was designed to operate independently so that monetary policy would not be bent to short‑term political goals. When a president pressures the Fed Chair to act in ways that serve immediate political interests rather than long‑term economic stability, it undermines one of the core guardrails of the American system. Guardrails are mentioned at this desk because those lessons from decades ago in Jim Winn’s civics class were ones I took seriously. I simply reject the idea that independent governmental institutions should bend to the will of the executive.

I have been appalled by how GOP members of Congress have abdicated their constitutional duty of oversight and accountability over the actions of the executive. Winn instructed me that Congress is not meant to be a supporting actor to the presidency. Rather, they are a coequal branch with its own powers and duties. What we witnessed in 2025 was what happens when Congress cowers and defers reflexively to a president of their own party. They weakened their institution and the constitutional balance of power that protects the country from overreach. One of the ingredients that the framers added to the mix was the awareness that power and ambition would counteract power and ambition. They surely hoped Congress would not place loyalty to a political leader over loyalty to the Constitution. ( I never did well in math courses in high school, but aced civics and history classes.)

It should not be a news story that Congress stood up to a president. But that is where we are as we start 2026. Trump will take to social media in the middle of the night and doubtless spew on about disloyalty. I think the nation will say of the GOP voices, “AT LAST”! I am not going to pretend that the senators were thinking about how the Constitution matters more than proximity to power. After the past year, I will need more evidence to have me believe that the GOP is truly willing to defend the boundaries that keep Trump from placing authoritarianism above constitutional order.