President Donald Trump said Friday he intends to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, marking a comeback for the former Fed governor who was passed over for the top job in 2017. “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 wrote on his Truth Social platform. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”
Warsh, 55, served on the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 and has advised Trump on economic policy. He will succeed Jerome Powell when his term expires in May, pending Senate confirmation. Trained as a lawyer, Warsh would be the second attorney in a row to lead the central bank. The selection caps years of public criticism by Warsh of Powell’s policies after leaving the Fed. It may reassure those worried about Fed independence. In a 2010 speech titled “Ode to Independence,” Warsh defended the central bank’s autonomy from political pressure, warning that governments would be “tempted to influence the central bank to keep monetary policy looser longer to finance the debt.”
