Trump Nominates Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve Chair to Succeed Jerome Powell
President Donald Trump on Friday named Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a prolonged odyssey that has seen unprecedented turmoil around the central bank.
The decision culminates a process that officially began last summer but started much earlier than that, with Trump launching a fusillade of criticism against the Powell-led Fed almost since Powell took the job in 2018.
“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the selection.
The pick of Warsh, 55, likely won’t ripple markets because of his past Fed experience and Wall Street’s view that he wouldn’t always do Trump’s bidding.
“He has the respect and credibility of the financial markets,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“There was no person who was going to get this job who wasn’t going to be cutting rates in the short term. However, I believe longer term he will be a credible candidate,” added Bahnsen.
Stock market futures nevertheless were slightly negative Friday morning, though off their lows since Warsh’s appointment became clear.
Warsh now faces Senate confirmation. If approved, he will take over the position in May, when Powell’s term expires. Warsh will fill the Board of Governors position currently held by Governor Stephen Miran, whose term expires Saturday. Miran can continue to serve until a replacement is named.
‘Regime change’ coming?
Since Powell’s confirmation in 2018, during Trump’s first term, the president has persistently hectored policymakers to lower interest rates aggressively. Even with three successive reductions in the latter part of 2025, Trump kept up the attack, pressing for lower rates and criticizing Powell for cost overruns at the Fed’s massive renovation of its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Beyond interest rates, Warsh comes to the Fed at a time when policymakers have taken a looser hand on banking regulations. Among the changes, pushed by Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, herself once in the running for Fed chair, are lower capital requirements, reducing supervision and supervisory staff, and backing the Fed out of ancillary efforts like pushing banks to prepare for climate events.
For his part, Warsh in a CNBC interview last summer called for “regime change” at the Fed.
“The credibility deficit lies with the incumbents that are at the Fed, in my view,” he said during the July interview. It’s a position that could put him in an adversarial role at an institution where consensus building is key to policy implementation.
Trump’s decision to nominate Warsh comes at one of the most precarious moments for the U.S. central bank in decades — with inflation not fully defeated, government borrowing escalating and the Fed itself facing unusually direct political pressure over how it conducts monetary policy.
Most recently, the Justice Department subpoenaed Powell regarding the construction project. In an uncharacteristically blunt response, Powell charged the move was a “pretext” to push the Fed into following Trump’s orders and ease policy further.
To that end, the nomination comes as questions about Fed independence, a bedrock of central bank credibility, have moved from academic debate into concern. Trump and other administration officials have floated ideas ranging from tighter White House oversight to changes in how the central bank sets rates, including forcing the chair to consult with the president on rate decisions.
“I want to keep it nice and pure, but he certainly wants to cut rates,” Trump said Friday afternoon during an Oval Office session with reporters. He added that he has not talked with Warsh about cutting rates, though the president said that would be a litmus test for candidates.
Source : CNBC.com
