This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Speaking before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, Kevin Warsh—Wall Street veteran, centimillionaire, and family friend of the president’s—insisted that he would be “an independent actor” if confirmed as the Federal Reserve chair. The real question was whether enough of his audience believed him.In some ways, Warsh is a relatively uncontroversial choice for the role. He has plenty of relevant credentials: He served on the National Economic Council during the George W. Bush administration, and was a Fed governor during the Great Recession. He was even on the shortlist to be chair in 2017. His experience as a governor also informed some of his long-standing critiques of the institution; in an op-ed last year, he laid out a vision for reducing central-bank overreach. But overshadowing Warsh’s qualifications was Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign to exert control over the Fed. Some committee members were more focused on interrogating the nominee’s ability to resist presidential interference than they were on his résumé.The Fed has always been charged with making policy decisions based on its own assessments of the economy, rather than simply accepting the president’s direction. Its seven governors are appointed to 14-year terms because they’re meant to take the long view. This hasn’t sat well with Trump, who has repeatedly berated the central bank’s current chair, Jerome Powell, for refusing to cut interest rates as quickly as he would like. Tensions between the two culminated in January, when Powell revealed that he was under federal investigation over his handling of the renovation of the Fed headquarters (three past chairs condemned the administration’s move as an “unprecedented attempt” to meddle with monetary policy). Last week, Trump escalated the situation by threatening to fire Powell if he exercises his right to remain on the Fed’s board of governors once Warsh is confirmed—as Powell has said he will do until the investigation comes to an end.Trump has been clear about his ambitions for the bank: “I want my new Fed Chairman to lower Interest Rates if the Market is doing well,” he wrote on Truth Social in December. “Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!” While campaigning for the job, Warsh made a point of saying he would bring rates down. He’d been hawkish on inflation during his previous tenure at the bank, but he has argued more recently that AI-fueled productivity gains and a reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet could justify lowering rates. During the hearing, Democratic senators pressed Warsh on whether his policies were his own, or just strategic attempts to get the job. Elizabeth Warren called him a “sock puppet” for the president, even as Warsh stressed that he has not promised Trump any particular policy outcomes in exchange for the position.This hearing had already been delayed once, and Democrats pushed last week to delay it again until the Trump administration drops its investigations into both Powell and the Fed governor Lisa Cook. In order for Warsh to be confirmed, Republicans will have to reckon with a crucial holdout in their own ranks: Senator Thom Tillis has been saying for months that he won’t support the nomination until the Justice Department drops the investigation into Powell. Yesterday, Tillis pointed—literally—to a massive printout of a 2010 quote from Warsh that highlighted the importance of Fed independence. In the Trump era, plenty of officials have promised to remain independent of the president, and not all of them have followed through. FBI Director Kash Patel and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, for example, both made that pledge during their confirmation hearings and later steered their departments in directions that explicitly served the president’s aims.Warsh repeatedly dodged questions that might put him at odds with Trump. He declined, for example, to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election. Warsh also minimized the president’s threats against the central bank, asserting that the Fed isn’t actually in any immediate danger of being coerced. “Fed independence is up to the Fed,” he told the senators. He also said that the central bank’s independence isn’t especially imperiled when “elected officials state their views on rates.” But the president has already gone far beyond simply stating his views.His push to reshape the bank began in earnest last year with his attempt to fire Cook—the first move of its kind in American history. Presidents can remove members of the Fed’s board “for cause,” but the “cause” that the administration is alleging in this case isn’t, say, gross misconduct. It’s mortgage fraud. No criminal charges have been brought against Cook; she has denied wrongdoing and is fighting the case in court. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in January—if the justices decide that the attempted firing was legal, it could effectively supercharge Trump’s power to stack the board according to his preferences.The Fed can’t navigate economic uncertainty without steady and impartial leadership. Consumer sentiment, an important indicator of the health of the economy, hit a record low this month, and the war in Iran drove inflation up nearly an entire percentage point in March. If Warsh remains a defender of Fed independence, he may well find himself in precisely the same position as Powell. Warsh’s diplomatic responses at the hearing could help him secure his new role, but they leave open key questions about the relationship between an independent Fed and a president unconcerned with keeping it that way.Related:Trump almost has a point about the Federal Reserve.The Fed’s succession dramaHere are three new stories from The Atlantic:Trump’s enormous gerrymandering blunderA “barbaric” problem in American hospitals is only getting bigger.The “missing scientist” story is unbelievably dumb.Today’s NewsIran fired on three ships and seized two of them in the Strait of Hormuz, a day after President Trump extended the cease-fire while maintaining a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.Virginia voters approved a Democratic-backed redistricting plan last night that could help the party gain up to four House seats in the midterms. This move allows Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map after Republicans pushed similar efforts in other states.John Phelan is departing from his position as Navy secretary after months of tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a Pentagon official. Hung Cao, the current undersecretary of the Navy, will serve as acting secretary.DispatchesThe Weekly Planet: Brace for the plastic-price hikes, Beth Gardiner warns.Explore all of our newsletters here.Evening ReadNic Coury / AFP / GettyApple Is Boring NowBy Ian BogostTim Cook’s job was to make Apple boring—and he did. Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, is stepping down after 15 years in the role. He had succeeded Steve Jobs after the visionary co-founder of Apple Computer Company left only months before dying of pancreatic cancer in 2011. Since then, Apple has grown in market value by 2,000 percent. It has also transformed into a staid, if immensely effective, firm that sells people glass rectangles, wireless earbuds, and, sometimes, computers. This legacy is not tragic, but it is somber.Read the full article.More From The AtlanticThe Virginia gerrymander disenfranchises Republicans.The MAHA moms are falling in line.The David Frum Show: On the brink of global recessionThe Iran talks are making India feel small.What Abdul El-Sayed doesn’t get about TrumpAlexandra Petri on Hegseth’s decision to bring back the fluCulture BreakIllustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The AtlanticRead. Nicholas Boggs recommends eight of the most fascinating biographies to read.Explore. Is cohabitation the feminist future? Stories about women living together are proliferating—and offering alternative visions to the nuclear family, Lily Meyer writes.Play our daily crossword.Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. 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