President Trump confirmed Friday morning that he will nominate Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, predicting Warsh “will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”
Trump, 79, announced the pick of Warsh, 55, on Truth Social hours after The Post’s Charles Gasparino reported that the commander in chief had settled on the former Fed governor to take over the central bank.
“On top of everything else,” Trump said of Warsh, “he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down. Congratulations Kevin!”
Gasparino reported that the president formally called Warsh to offer him the job on Thursday after a final meeting, choosing him over BlackRock executive Rick Reider, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and current Fed governor Christopher Waller.
Warsh served on the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011. A former Morgan Stanley executive director, he gained a reputation during the 2008 financial crisis of being then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s Wall Street whisperer.
After leaving the Fed, Warsh joined Stanford University’s Hoover Institution as a visiting fellow and also lectured at the California institution’s Graduate School of Business.
Powell’s tenure as Fed chair is due to end in May. In an ironic twist, Trump had considered Warsh for Fed chair during his first term in office before settling on Powell in 2018.
Since then, the 72-year-old Powell has repeatedly been attacked by Trump for being slow to lower interest rates, with the president publicly calling him a “moron” Thursday after the central bank left its benchmark rate unchanged.
The previous day, Powell offered public advice for his yet-to-be named replacement at a press conference following the Fed’s interest rate decision.
“Stay out of elected politics, don’t get pulled into elected politics,” he warned. “Don’t do it.”
