Sen. Thom Tillis Vows To Block All Fed Nominees After DOJ Probe Into Jerome Powell

Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is vowing to block all of President Donald Trump’s future appointees to the Federal Reserve — including the upcoming Chair vacancy — citing the Justice Department’s criminal probe into chairman Jerome Powell.

Tillis, a retiring lawmaker who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, holds considerable influence over who Trump is able to confirm to the Fed.

“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” Tillis wrote in a statement after news of the federal probe became public late Sunday.

“It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,” Tillis added.

Republicans hold a 13-11 majority on the panel, meaning a “no” vote from Tillis would leave a prospective Trump nominee short of the necessary votes to advance out of committee in a party-line vote. In this case, Republicans could try to advance a potential Fed nominee via a different procedural route, but that move could also fail if there is enough GOP opposition.

Powell, who was first appointed as Fed chair during Trump’s first administration and later reappointed under former President Joe Biden, is slated to step down as chairman on May 15, though he could remain a Fed governor through 2028.

White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh are among the top contenders to succeed Powell.

Powell said the Justice Department had opened an investigation into his June 2025 testimony to Congress regarding the central bank’s construction project and that the Fed received grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment, in a statement released Sunday. Trump has previously criticized the new building project for severe cost overruns.

Powell also argued the probe is a “pretext” for Trump to coerce the Fed to continue lowering interest rates and erode the independence of the central bank.

“This unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure,” Powell said in a dramatic video. “This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role; the Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts.”

Trump denied knowing about the criminal probe into Powell during a brief interview with NBC News late Sunday.

“I don’t know anything about it, but he’s certainly not very good at the Fed, and he’s not very good at building buildings,” the president said of Powell.

Tillis has emerged as a vocal GOP critic of Trump in his second term. The North Carolina Republican excoriated Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) for cutting federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion, which he argued would result in hundreds of thousands of his constituents losing healthcare coverage.

Federal Medicaid spending is still estimated to skyrocket by roughly 8% in fiscal year 2026, according to health research nonprofit KFF.

Tillis has also recently criticized the Trump administration for not ruling out military force to take control of Greenland. The departing Republican still declined to join Democrats and a handful of defecting Republicans to support a war powers resolution that would block Trump from using future military force on Venezuela.

Tillis has also put a hold on all future Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nominees until DHS Secretary Kristi Noem agrees to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“My chairman [Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley] has made two requests in this Congress to have the Homeland Security Secretary come before the committee, and they have yet to confirm that they’re coming,” Tillis told reporters. “That is unacceptable.”