This much we know to be true: President Donald Trump is desperate for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to leave that job in May and for his nominee as the new chair, Kevin Warsh, to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

But Warsh's April 21 nomination hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs showed something else that is also true – Trump can't accept help from his allies, because he can't help himself.

Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, repeatedly denied in that hearing that Trump had directly pressed him to lower interest rates if he were confirmed. But Warsh also dodged any question from senators asking about Trump siccing the Department of Justice on Powell, because he did not lower interest rates when Trump demanded it.

What we saw just before Warsh's hearing, and while it was going on, was that some Trump allies are eager to help him find a path for his new Fed chair to the job. But Trump stepped all over those efforts.

Trump just can't help himself with Jerome Powell

Trump, in a long CNBC interview clearly staged on April 21 to calm the markets as his war of choice in Iran rocks the economy here and around the world, was offered an "off-ramp" for the DOJ investigation of Powell by conservative host Joe Kernen.

The pretext here, as Powell called it when he revealed the investigation in January, is cost........

© USA TODAY