Trump nominates Kevin Warsh to be Federal Reserve chief: 'He will never let you down'

US President Donald Trump said he is nominating Kevin Warsh as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, effectively replacing Jerome Powell, whose eight-year tenure as the Fed Chair will end in May 2026.

“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. On top of everything else, he is “central casting,” and he will never let you down,” Trump said in the post.

Warsh has taken the lead over other top contenders for the role, which included White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett and Christopher Waller, who is currently a member of the Fed’s board. Besides them, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder was also frontrunner for the position.

The nomination comes as the current Fed chair Powell is at the center of a criminal investigation over his testimony before Congress about the costs of a Federal reserve building renovation, an inquiry that Powell has publicly denounced as politically motivated pressure over the Fed's refusal to cut interest rates.

Who is Kevin Warsh?

Born in Albany, New York, Kevin Warsh has previously served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. He has also been an outspoken Fed critic, attacking the central bank's heavy reliance on data to its use of assets on its balance sheet, BBC reported earlier.

Though known for his “hawkish” stance, who favoured higher rates while in office, Warsh is now seen as more supportive of lower rates in the near term, the report stated.

The new Fed Chair nominee's career spans across the private sector and Capitol Hill, as well as roles within the Federal Reserve. He has a degree in public policy at Stanford University, with a major in economics and statistics.

Warsh was chosen by Bush to serve on the Board of Governors. He stepped down later in 2011 and then became a board member at UPS and Coupang, as well as the economic advisor to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), according to a Fortune report.

Why Jerome Powell is being replaced?

President Donald Trump has taken multiple jabs at Jerome Powell lately, criticising him for refusing to cut interest rates, and accusing him of damaging the country's economy and even undermining national security.

Meanwhile, Powell has continued to defend the Fed's independence, insisting that monetary policy must be guided by inflation risks and economic data, not political pressure from the White House.