US President Donald Trump has announced that he has chosen Kevin Warsh as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve System, effectively replacing Jerome Powell, whose eight-year term as Fed chairman ends in May 2026.
“I’ve known Kevin for a long time and I have no doubt that he will be one of the GREAT Fed Chairs, possibly the best. Above all else, he is a ‘core cast’ and will never let you down,” Trump said in the post.
Warsh took the lead over other top contenders for the role, which included White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Christopher Waller, who is currently a member of the Fed’s board of directors. In addition to them, BlackRock CEO Rick Rieder was also the leader of this position.
The nomination comes as previous Fed Chairman Powell is at the center of a criminal investigation into his testimony before Congress about the cost of renovating a Federal Reserve building, an investigation Powell has publicly denounced as politically motivated pressure on the Fed’s refusal to cut interest rates.
Who is Kevin Warsh?
Born in Albany, New York, Kevin Warsh previously served as Fed Governor from 2006 to 2011. He has also been an outspoken critic of the Fed, attacking the central bank’s heavy reliance on asset usage data on its balance sheet, the BBC previously reported.
Although Warsh is known for his “hawkish” stance, favoring higher rates while in office, he is now seen as more supportive of lower rates in the near term, the report said.
The new Fed chairman’s career spans the private sector and Capitol Hill, as well as roles within the Federal Reserve System. He studied public policy at Stanford University with a concentration in economics and statistics.
Warsh was nominated by Bush as a nominee to the Board of Governors. He later resigned in 2011 and then became a board member of UPS and Coupang, as well as an economic adviser to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), according to a Fortune report.
