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Trump Swears In Kevin Warsh As New Fed Chair; Trump On New Fed Chair - I want Him To Be Independent; Kevin Warsh Sworn In As Fed Chair With Inflation At 3-Year High; Sources - Trump Has No Plans To Change $1.8B Fund Despite GOP Defiance; Sen. McConnell - Trump's $1.8B Fund - Utterly Stupid, Morally Wrong; Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 22, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- pandits they said well, 50,000 would be impossible during the four years, but sometime after we hit it in the first year, but now we're really hitting it and I think of its up to 50,702. And S&P likewise set a new record today. They both set new records today and, boy, that's something good. But you're going to bring it to a much different level. Believe me. It's good, but it can go much better. And that's what I think you're going to do.

In my first year, we passed the largest tax cuts in American history, the largest regulation cuts in American history, and the largest spending cuts in American history, all things that are so important to greatness. And last year, we slashed the budget by almost $500 billion. At the same time, our military was at 1.2 trillion, and we'll go be doing the one thing we are going to be doing is and we build everything in America. We build it here. It's jobs, jobs, jobs, but it's also strength, strength, strength. We're going to be submitting a military budget for $1.5 trillion.

We have the greatest military in the world. I built it during my first term. I didn't know we'd be using it so much in my second term, but they gave away a little bit of it during somebody else's term, foolishly, but it's a very small part relative to the whole. But we have the greatest military in the world. I was with President Xi, and I said to him, we have the greatest military in the world. And he actually didn't agree. We had a great meeting. He actually didn't disagree with me on that very much, I will tell you. But, we really do. What we've done in Venezuela, you see, what we've done to Iran. Iran is dying to make a deal. We'll see what happens. But we hit them hard, and we had no choice because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have it.

So I promised to cut 10 old regulations, as you know, in my first term for every new regulation. If you put a new regulation, and that's fine, but you had to cut -- do -- you had to cut at least 10. And so far, this and I did that. It was actually one to 12, so I did a little bit better. So far we're blowing it away this year. So far, it's one for 129. In other words, we're cutting 129 regulations that we put in so that you -- that's music to hear. As you know, we don't even have to go through Congress for that. That's -- it's a lot easier. If I do it, it's a lot easier. But all of these actions are aimed at lowering costs, creating jobs, and driving economic growth.

Jobless claims recently hit the lowest level since 1969. Under our leadership, 5 million people have been lifted off of the food stamps. Think of that. Under just in a short period of time. More Americans are working today, as I said, than ever before. And very importantly, 100 percent of the net new jobs under this administration have been created in the private sector, which is a number that nobody's ever achieved.

Think of that. They're all in the private sector, and we did get rid of a lot of government jobs. You had jobs where there were 10 people for every single job and every single event, and they were doing all the same thing or they weren't doing very much. And they didn't like me for a while, and now they're all working at private sector jobs, and they're making double, triple, quadruple the pay, and they're loving life, and they're loving going to work. And it was a painful experience cutting that many people from the federal government, but it's been amazing.

And you just can't have that. You can never make a country, as I say, great again if you're going to have all government jobs. We're all private jobs, and the jobs are coming. We're building more plants, more equipment than anybody, has ever -- any president's ever done, any administration's ever done. And the number I like the best is we have $18 trillion being invested in the United States for a 11 months, not 12. We haven't gotten the results from 12 yet.

We're pretty new. But, in 11 months, we have $18 trillion being invested, with a T, being invested in the United States. And the record was $3 trillion many years ago by a different country that I actually just left. Starts with a C, but we have and that was three. And we're at 18 trillion. We're building factories, car plants, every -- the AI, everything, all over the country. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And I have to say, I have to give the credit to what used to, I used to say it was my favorite word, my favorite word of all, but I got in such trouble because when I said tariff is my favorite word, the media went crazy. They said, what about your wife, your family? What about God? What about religion? So I said, OK. Good. I'll make it my fifth favorite word, right?

But because of tariffs, we have tremendous amounts of I mean, the car companies are all coming back. They left us for 35, 40 years. They left us a chip. We will have 50 percent of the chip making capability of who that man right there is. Don't stand up. Will you please? But is that right? We're going to have 50 percent by the time I leave office and maybe more than that. They're moving in from Taiwan. They're moving in from other places, and they're building in Arizona in particular in that particular case.

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But between the auto plants we have more auto plants under construction now than we ever had before. We went many years and there was no plant built. And it's all due to what we did with tariffs. I guess November 5th, but all because of the tariffs and what they've done used properly, used judiciously. So it's really something special. So we have all these plants under construction. They'll be completed over the next year and a half, and you're going to see numbers like we've never seen in this country before.

No country has ever seen the kind of numbers you're going to see. And we have some of the people in this room, I look at them, some of the geniuses that are building those plants. A plant used to cost if you built a shopping center, it would cost 50 millions a nice center, but 500 millions a giant beautiful center. These people are investing. You're going to have to look in $50 billion --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: OK. We are going to continue to monitor President Trump who was at the White House, about to be there for the swearing in of the new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. And as we watch the wind up for the swearing in of Kevin Warsh, the President spent a lot of the ceremony and has so far making the case for what he wants a new Fed boss to do.

We know what it is, number one, two, and three, which is lower the Fed -- excuse me, lower the interest rates. Maybe really hard for the new Fed chair to do that given the fact that inflation is rising. As my colleague, Alison Morrow, summed up so well this morning, good luck, Kevin Warsh. You're going to need it. And, again, we're going to keep monitoring this event for the moment when Warsh is actually sworn in.

As we do, I want to bring in our terrific panel here. I want to start with you, Tarini, and just sort of talk broadly about this moment. I want to talk about the moment that Warsh has ahead, but just this moment that's happening at the White House right now, because as we were listening to the President rattle off all of the names of the dignitaries who were there, it's a wide range, from everybody from, Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser who apparently had the almost fed chair as a student of hers, to members of congress, to members of the supreme court, and even Bill Pulte, who is somebody who if you're following the drama with the Fed and particularly with Jerome Powell, had a very big role in trying to get Powell really undermine him by making the case that the changes that he is making to the actual Fed Building, the new Fed Building, are inappropriate.

TARINI PARTI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: This is definitely an interesting gathering and not something we usually see when a fed chair is getting sworn in. We haven't seen a swearing in ceremony like this since 1987 when Alan Greenspan was being sworn in at the White House. In recent years, it's been held at the headquarters, not at the White House.

And what's interesting is President said he wants Kevin Warsh to be independent. And then we're still seeing the ceremony at the White House. He's clearly making the case for lowering interest rates, which is going to be a tough sell, and it's going to be, as you summed it up, good luck to Kevin Warsh. He is not going to have as much political cover given his relationship with the President.

And it's an open question on how he's going to manage his relationship with the President, keeping him happy while also keeping his job if interest rates stay steady or if they have to go up.

BASH: Yeah. And as we're continuing to watch this, one of the things that the President said was that the Fed is going to make their own decisions, but then went on to make clear what he wants them to do. And the challenge as you're seeing on the screen here is inflation because basic economics, even I know this, and I don't know a whole lot about basic economics, is that when inflation is up as it is right now, the role of the Fed is to try to manage that. And traditionally, what the Fed has done is not to have interest rates go too far down to manage that.

In fact, let's go back to the White House. The swearing in is about to happen.

CLARENCE THOMAS, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I do solemnly swear.

KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: I, Kevin Warsh, do solemnly swear.

THOMAS: That I will support and defend the constitution of the United States.

WARSH: That I will support and defend the constitution of the United States.

THOMAS: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

WARSH: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

THOMAS: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

WARSH: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

THOMAS: That I take this obligation freely.

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WARSH: That I take this obligation freely.

THOMAS: Without any mental reservation for purpose of the wage.

WARSH: Without any mental reservation or purpose of the wage.

THOMAS: And that I well and faithfully discharge.

WARSH: And then I well and faithfully discharge.

THOMAS: The duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.

WARSH: The duties on the office upon which I'm about to enter.

THOMAS: So help me, god.

WARSH: So help me, god. Thank you, Mr. President. This is above and beyond. It is such an honor for Jane and me to have this ceremony here in the East Room with you, sir. I couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting or more gracious welcome, and I am grateful. I recognize, as the President said, that ours is a time of great consequence.

It's also a great honor for me to have the oath of office administered by one of the great and longest serving public servants, a brilliant and independent thinker, a man dedicated to our constitution, and no less important, a joyful and collegial presence on our highest court, my esteemed friend, Justice Clarence Thomas.

Now Justice Kavanaugh is here as well. We served as young staffers a full generation ago in this building. And I shouldn't be speaking for another justice, but I will tell you something that I always felt, that justice Kavanaugh and I felt the majesty of this place where we're now sitting. And we counted ourselves blessed and grateful to serve the nation we love and to do it in your building, sir.

And, of course, I must thank, leader Thune, Chairman Tim Scott, and his fellow members of the banking committee who saw me through the senate confirmation. My whole family and I are joined by many others here today who I'm honored to call friends and colleagues, mentors, confidants. Their presence means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to the President too.

It's the honor of a lifetime to be called back into public service. And with this oath, I've accepted a high and solemn responsibility. At the swearing in of Alan Greenspan at this very place in 1987, President Ronald Reagan called the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve a "Great role in American life." I've known five of my predecessors in this job, some of them quite well.

But Chairman Greenspan was the first to tell me and show me what this role demands. He recently marked his 100th birthday. And although he can't be here, I'm thinking about him today too. Like Alan, I intended to fill the role of Chairman with energy and purpose just the way Chairman Greenspan did. Faithful to the mission and the very best traditions of the Fed. As you demonstrate, Mr. President, every day, energy and purpose are how big obstacles are overcome.

Your greatest ambitions are for America, for what free people can achieve when they have the chance. And while I'm not naive about the challenges we face, I believe, Mr. President, these years can bring unmatched prosperity that will raise living standards for Americans from all walks of life. And the Fed has something to do with it. Our mandate at the Fed is to promote price stability and maximum employment. When we pursue those aims with wisdom and clarity, independence and resolve, inflation can be lower, growth stronger, real take home pay higher, and America can be more prosperous.

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And no less important, America's place in the world more secure. To fulfill this mission, I will lead a reform oriented Federal Reserve, learning from past successes and mistakes both, escaping static frameworks and models, and upholding clear standards of integrity and performance. Today marks a return to an institution that I do in fact cherish. It was nearly a generation ago, at another time of great consequence, that I worked with some outstanding public servants at the Fed, both here in Washington and at the Reserve Banks. My goal now is to create an environment in which the best people can do their life's best work and to face every challenge in the spirit of common purpose and devotion to the national interest, in a word, to excellence. These duties are now mine, Mr. President, because of the trust you have placed in me. I accept them with gratitude and will strive every day to serve our fellow citizens well.

And in final, I'll just say I'm going to look around and try to hold on to this special moment. But after we leave this stage, the real work begins. So let's begin that work. It's an honor. Thank you again, Mr. President.

BASH: OK. That is now the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, making clear he understands there are some big economic challenges here. He is now beginning a four year term as Fed Chair, and he has this very elaborate swearing in ceremony at the White House in the East Wing of the White House East Room rather. East Wing isn't there anymore. The East Room of the White House with many, many people who have come there, and it's noteworthy because this isn't something that we usually see for the Fed chair.

We haven't seen anything even close to this and since 1987 when Alan Greenspan was sworn in during Ronald Reagan's term, which is something that Kevin Walsh alluded to. Talking about his reverence for Alan Greenspan, there's just some pictures to remind everybody about the last three Fed Chairs sworn in not at the White House.

On the left there, you see the swearing in of Jerome Powell. He was President Trump's pick to lead the Fed, and the President has turned on him in a very big way, said he was disappointed in Powell. And, Sung Min, one of the big immediate questions is going to be whether or not the president turns his feelings against Kevin Warsh, relatively quickly if Warsh doesn't do what the President wants which is to lower interest rates.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And Kevin Warsh said in those remarks that he will pursue the aims of the Fed with many things, including independence. So he did nod to that in those remarks, but it is impossible to divorce Kevin Warsh's mission from the context in which he was nominated. And that context is the president being repeatedly angry at Jerome Powell over the matter of interest rates. We saw those truths and comments almost every day, really detailing the president's frustration and anger. He tried to oust him early on. He had entertained firing him.

So you kind of -- so that's kind of the task that Kevin Warsh faces ahead. As he goes and leads the Fed. So it'll be an incredibly challenging moment for him. I will say though that it was really, I mean, this swearing in ceremony was kind of fun and interesting to watch. Just the constellation of people that it brought together that you normally wouldn't see.

I was curious as to why Justice Clarence Thomas was doing the swearing in, because he's probably the most low profile justice. He doesn't really go out and do a lot --

BASH: But they're clearly friends.

KIM: They are clearly friends. He, actually, when Kevin Warsh was an intern in the White House counsel's office, he worked on the confirmation process for Clarence Thomas. So that's a little bit of fun history there.

BASH: And Andrew, speaking of lowering interest rates, if you look at a headline from your paper, Tarini, The Wall Street Journal, there's pressure for the opposite to happen. To raise interest rates, Fed minutes reveal support for rate hikes if inflation proves persistent.

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Yeah. And look, Kevin Warsh alluded to leader John Thune in the senate as well as Tim Scott, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee thanking them for their work in getting him to this position. But you talked to Republicans who serve on that committee, one of whom is Thom Tillis, by the way, who held up Kevin Warsh's confirmation process until the administration dropped that investigation into Jerome Powell.

[12:20:00]

Again, the concerns being political interference. Those banking committee Republicans say that they have confidence that Kevin Warsh will follow sort of the letter of the economics here and not give in to political pressure from the President. But the pressure is going to be there. It is going to exist.

And the question is, how does Kevin Warsh handle that? And can he try to develop those relationships with senators in ways that Jerome Powell did very successfully and leverage that for himself?

BASH: I want to bring you in. We're going to sneak in a quick break. As you talk, I do want to if we can bring back the inflation rate right now and the chart that shows the climb and where Kevin Warsh is going to have some real challenges with the unofficial semi unspoken mandate from the President.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Right. And I even think as we watch this swearing in, which was arguably more than many members of Trump's cabinet received when they were sworn in.

BASH: Oh, definitely. A lot more.

MITCHELL: And then so to me, it gives the perception that the Fed Chair is on the inner circle that he works for Trump. He's being sworn in the White House again in ways that even surpass the actual members of Trump's cabinet. So again, I honor the fact that both President Trump and Chair Warsh did talk about the independence of the Fed, but I think the optics are already indicating otherwise, and we'll see what the actual how he conducts himself in this position. And is he able to truly assert independence when it counts? Because it's easier said than done under Donald Trump's administration.

BASH: Yeah. MITCHELL: Is he able to assert it, and how does Trump respond?

BASH: All right. We're going to sneak in a quick break. Coming up, one of the hallmarks of Trump 2.0 is how rarely we have seen Republicans defy him, but Senate Republicans may may have found the line when it comes to the President's anti-weaponization fund. And later, former Senator Lamar Alexander has seen a lot in nearly 60 years, six zero years of public service. He's going to be here live, and we'll talk about how much things have changed.

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BASH: President Trump is brushing aside what's becoming almost unprecedented Republican resistance. In this case, it is his $1.8 billion so called anti-weaponization fund. Today, he posted on Truth Social, "I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced anti- weaponization fund to go forward. Instead, I'm helping others who were so badly abused by evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden administration receive at long last justice."

Democrats and some Republicans say it's really a taxpayer funded slush fund that the president can use to pay off his supporters, including people convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers on January 6th. Never mind just going in and trying to interrupt a democratic process. The issue has turned so politically radioactive that senate Republicans just left town early. Here's a reminder of what the President said on this very show this time yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you losing control of the Senate Republicans?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't know. I really don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Seung Min?

KIM: I mean, he did. He did lose control of -- I mean, the pushback that you saw from Senate Republicans was really remarkable in that this is a group of lawmakers who haven't really been willing to do that no matter what the President said or what the administration did. But I think what's going on here is obviously, one, this anti weaponization fund that they find so unpalatable and offensive that had there been motions put forward in this budget process that was supposed to happen, the meant to kill it, it would have passed with republican support.

I think the other thing that's going on here too and why this anger exploded so much this week through the fun is that Senate Republicans are really, really, really angry about the President not endorsing John Cornyn in the primary. I think this is different than when the President has tried to oust other incumbents. Obviously, we saw Bill Cassidy, whatnot earlier this week and other or earlier this month and other people.

But John Cornyn is different. He has been there. He has been their colleague since I think 2003. He has been their whip. He has been their NRSC chair helped to get a lot of them elected. And they -- this is so that is really personal for them. And I think the fund is one way that they're really taking out that anger of that endorsement.

BASH: Yeah. They're pissed.

KIM: They're really mad.

BASH: Yeah. They're really mad. Not to mention another senator. Bill Cassidy lost his primary this week because of a Trump endorsed challenge. Let's just look at some just back to the anti-weaponization fund, so to speak, some of the quotes from Republican senators. Mitch McConnell, utterly stupid, morally wrong. Lisa Murkowski, the White House dropped a bomb. Ron Johnson, I mean, Ron Johnson, who is not someone who speaks out against the President much. Somebody described it as a galactic blunder, and I think that's probably true.

To put an even finer point on it, if you didn't get it --