Elizabeth Warren once called Fed chair Powell corrupt, now she’s fighting for him. Why?

Senator Elizabeth Warren is defending Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after years of calling him corrupt, reckless, and dangerous.

In 2025, with president Donald Trump back in the Oval, Warren is stepping in to shield Powell from Trump’s attacks, despite the fact that she has spent years trying to get him out of the job.

Warren once accused Powell of weakening bank regulations and making the entire financial system “less safe.” She said there was a “culture of corruption” at the Fed after top officials resigned over improper trading. She hated his refusal to cut interest rates and called him out every time she could. 

But now that Trump is targeting Powell, Warren is switching sides—not because she suddenly agrees with Powell, but because she doesn’t trust Trump to keep the Fed politically neutral. And hey, an enemy of her enemy might as well be her frenemy at the very least, right?

Warren says Trump’s threats to fire Powell could wreck the markets

This shift came after Trump posted on Truth Social that Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump floated the idea of removing Powell during his first term too but backed off after market panic. So we’re essentially in a loop.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to calm things down, saying Trump might have meant “terminus” differently, but Trump later said he had “no intention” of firing Powell before May 2026, when his term ends.

Still, the threat was out there. Warren, who leads the Democrats on the committee that oversees financial agencies, said Powell isn’t perfect but he keeps politics out of Fed decisions.

“I disagree with Powell on both monetary and regulatory policy,” Warren said this week, “but I have respect over how he’s managed the politics.” She said Powell listens to all sides but makes his own decisions. “That is as it should be.”

Warren and Powell barely spoke privately for years. She hammered him over interest rates and financial regulation. But now, even though she still wants lower borrowing costs—just like Trump—she says their methods are totally different.

“I don’t have any authority to make the Fed do anything,” Warren said. “All I can do is try to persuade, and that’s what I try to do. Donald Trump is not trying to make an argument of persuasion. He’s making a threat when he says that if he wants Jay Powell gone, then Jay Powell will be gone.”

She warns removing Powell will drag the Fed into political chaos

Warren warned that Trump’s push to fire Powell could cause serious market problems. She pointed to how investors reacted to Trump’s past trade comments.

In one case, she said, capital didn’t run to US government bonds like it normally does in a crisis. “In a moment of chaos, the flight to safety did not land in the US bond market,” she said. “It went to other nations. That is a sobering moment for our nation.”

She said the Fed’s role goes far beyond just setting rates. It also regulates banks, and that’s where Warren has always focused her fight. She said letting politicians control bank regulation would wreck the stability of financial markets.

She mentioned that this idea of independence for regulators goes all the way back to 1863. “The Congress back in 1863 understood that if politicians could shorten or lengthen the leash on the banking regulators through the appropriations process, then no one could rely on a group of decision makers who were only thinking about safety and security of the financial system,” Warren said.

She said Trump trying to remove Powell would drag the Fed into political chaos. “If Donald Trump tries to fire the head of the Fed, he’s trying to swoop banking regulation into the political stew, and monetary policy and regulatory decisions made under those circumstances will not sustain markets over the long haul,” she said.

There’s also a legal fight going on. The Supreme Court is reviewing whether agencies like the Fed can remain fully independent. Some legal experts think the Court could split its authority, allowing the president to control financial rules but not interest rates. But, “there’s no such thing as, you’re half independent,” Warren said.

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