president donald trump announced on Friday that he would nominate Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve, ending months of speculation over who he would pick to lead the central bank.

“I have known Kevin for a long time and I have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairs, perhaps the best,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “On top of everything else, it’s ‘casting central’ and will never let you down. Congratulations Kevin!”

Before assuming one of the most powerful positions in the US development of economic policies, Warsh has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

Kevin Warsh, former governor of the US Federal Reserve, during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank at IMF headquarters in Washington, DC on April 25, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What to know about Kevin Warsh:

Born in 1970, Warsh earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and later earned a law degree from Harvard University. Like Powell, Warsh does not have a formal degree in economics (Powell earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University and a law degree from Georgetown).

TRUMP NOMINATES KEVIN WARSH TO SUCCEED JEROME POWELL AS FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN

Warsh spent time working in the private sector at JPMorgan before joining President George W. Bush’s administration in 2002, polishing his credentials in Republican political circles until Bush appointed him to the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2006. At 35, he became the Fed’s youngest-ever governor.

Since leaving the Fed in 2011, Warsh has been a Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He also sits on the UPS board and is a trustee of the Group of Thirty and the Panel of Economic Advisors of the Congressional Budget Office.

In 2017, Trump considered replacing Janet Yellen as Fed Chair. the president instead, he chose Powell as his successor. Warsh also ran for Treasury secretary last fall before Trump nominated hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell arrives at the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington on January 13, 2026. (Nathan Howard / Reuters)

FROM MORTGAGES TO CAR LOANS: HOW AFFAIRS GO UP AND DOWN WITH THE FED

Perhaps no Fed chair finalist was as critical of Powell as Warsh. He has advocated for wholesale changes in the Fed’s policy approach, calling the central bank’s economic models outdated and opaque while criticizing the accumulation of its balance sheet.

Despite building a reputation as one of the The Fed’s most important inflation “hawks” during his time on the Board of Governors, Warsh had said as recently as last fall that the Fed has room to ease borrowing costs.

“Prices may be lower,” Warsh told Fox News’ “Special Report” in October, “but it will require a regime change at the Fed.”

While Trump’s calls for Powell to lower interest rates have been echoed throughout his bid for the central bank’s top job, Warsh has been notably less specific about what his preferred path for monetary policy would be. Members of the Senate Banking Committee are likely to press Warsh on those views during his confirmation hearing before the panel.

Former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh speaks during the American Economic Association (AEA) annual conference in Chicago, Illinois, on January 6, 2017. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TRUMP VS THE FEDERAL RESERVE: HOW THE SHOCK REACHED UNCHARTED TERRITORY

As the Fed struggles to fix rates and adjust to Trump’s tariffs, Warsh, once a critic of protectionist trade policies, said last summer that the tariffs would not cause lasting inflation.

After last spring’s tariff announcements, inflation trended higher for the year and remains closer to 3% than the Fed’s 2% target, although policymakers expect it to approach the target through 2026, barring more tariff announcements. High inflation together with the slowdown in the labor market have complicated the prospects for rate cuts and this dynamic may persist at the end of the year.

Still, any idea that Warsh would take a conciliatory approach to managing politics would be in contrast to his record at the Fed, where he was critical of the central bank’s plan to continue buying Treasuries keeping interest rates low for an extended period of time as the labor market languished during the 2008 housing crisis.

CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

Warsh ties with wall street, which are said to remain strong today, allowed him to serve as the Fed’s primary link to the banking industry during this period.