That stream of honesty has turned into a firehose aimed towards Trump’s White House, leading to an increasingly personal back-and-forth between Tillis and the president during a time when Trump will certainly need his vote. “But if people look back over the course of the 20 years I’ve been in legislative politics, I have always bucked,” Tillis continued. That period kickstarted the more frequent criticisms lobbed between Trump and Tillis, which will likely continue as Tillis finishes out his last year in the Senate. That strain will soon be put to the test: Tillis could be the deciding vote on how confirming the next chair for the Federal Reserve will go, and how easy or difficult the process will be. A swing vote on the Banking Committee, Tillis has maintained that he will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee until the Justice Department’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is resolved.