President Donald Trump has picked Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve. In keeping with the president’s push for lower interest rates, Warsh is expected to be more supportive of cutting the Fed’s key benchmark rate later this year.
“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,” said Trump in a Truth Social post on Friday.
Fed board members are nominated by the president but must be approved by the Senate. If confirmed, Warsh will take over for Powell when his term ends in May, opening the door to a potential change in the direction of monetary policy over the second half of 2026.
Warsh, a former Fed governor with a Wall Street background, has been critical of the central bank’s handling of inflation in the past and told CNBC in July that its hesitancy to cut interest rates undermined its credibility.
“Based on his past statements and actions in his previous stint as a Fed Governor, Warsh was by far the most hawkish of the four final candidates for Fed Chair,” said Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School.
