The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell drew swift pushback from across right-wing media on Monday, as pundits typically aligned with President Donald Trump savaged the move as “lawfare for dummies” that would “make a martyr” of its target. The widespread criticism emphasized the lack of a constituency for strong-arming the Fed into endorsing Trump’s policy agenda with apparent pretextual legal threats.

Powell said Sunday that the Fed had received Justice Department subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment over his congressional testimony regarding ongoing renovations of its headquarters. He portrayed the move as part of Trump’s long-running effort to pressure Powell to drastically lower interest rates and quash the Fed’s independence. 

Trump, described by his senior first-term advisers as a “fascist,” campaigned on using the federal government to exact “retribution” against his political opponents, whom he described as “the enemy from within” and “vermin.” The Powell investigation is one of numerous such blatantly political probes — often at the explicit order of the president — that the Trump administration subsequently launched against his political enemies. 

The Trump administration’s use of the Justice Department as a cudgel against his enemies typically draws support from at least some faction of MAGA media. But the response to the Powell probe — reportedly promoted within the administration by Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte and overseen by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former Fox News host — has been remarkably negative across the board.

In an early sign the probe was in trouble, Trumpist zealot Maria Bartiromo suggested on her Fox Business show that “Wall Street” opposed the move “because it looks like the president is actually, you know, shoehorning rates, and now doing it through the DOJ.” Her panelists described the investigation as “a unforced error by the Trump administration” and urged the president “to back off and leave the Fed alone.”

The investigation drew criticism over the course of the day on both Fox News and Fox Business, with commentators pointing out the obvious political motive behind it. 

In one Fox Business segment featuring three former Trump economic advisers — host Larry Kudlow and guests Art Laffer and Steve Moore — none supported the probe, even as all three criticized Powell’s tenure at the Fed. 

Kudlow warned not to “make a martyr out of Jay Powell” while scoffing at the conduct under review, while Moore said that the investigation would distract from positive economic news and argued, “Jerome Powell is a small player in this, and he's going to be gone in three or four months, so let's have this story go away.” Laffer did not take a position on whether the probe was valid but said, “I think Powell should have just resigned and gotten out of there and kept his nose clean.”

Laura Ingraham was the only Fox News host to address the controversy that evening — and she repudiated it. “I tend to agree with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who believes any such investigation is probably unwise,” she said. Trump stalwarts Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity, meanwhile, dodged the story altogether on their shows. 

The probe was not more popular outside the Fox confines. 

Over at rival Newsmax, guest Tiana Lowe Doescher of the Washington Examiner argued that the investigation “might have completely backfired on Trump,” while former Fox host and first-term Trump White House official Mercedes Schlapp warned that the Justice Department needs better communications about “why they're pursuing this criminal investigation, because, as I've seen it yet, I think there's going to be more questions than we have answers right now.” 

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro called the Powell probe “bad policy” because “you should not be targeting people based on specious investigations,” adding that it is a “mistake” and “a risky financial move.”

At National Review, commentators wrote that the Trump administration is conducting “pure thuggery, lawfare of the most shameless and self-disgracing sort” and called for congressional oversight to “uncover the origins of this investigation and its motives.”

“President Trump would do himself and the country a big favor by firing those responsible for this fiasco,” wrote the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, terming the probe “lawfare for dummies.”

Some of these conservative outlets and personalities have criticized the Trump administration’s authoritarian use of federal law enforcement in past cases. But the strength of the right-wing consensus is unusually strong — and is reflected in the criticism from Republican members of Congress and other Trump administration officials. Even the president himself is now trying to dodge responsibility for the investigation, something he surely would not do if he had the typical MAGA army at his back.