WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced Friday he is nominating former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh to be the next US central bank chief, capping a closely watched search for a successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Powell, whom the president has repeatedly criticised for not cutting interest rates more swiftly, sees his term end in May.
“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president added that Warsh is “central casting” and “will never let you down.”
Warsh, 55, was the youngest person to serve as a Fed governor, holding the role from 2006 to 2011. While Trump considered Warsh for the top job during his first term, he ultimately chose Powell, a decision he quickly regretted.
The nominee now faces hurdles in the US Senate amid concerns about the Fed’s insulation from politics.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, reiterated plans to oppose any nominee until an administrative probe involving Powell is resolved.
The panel’s top Democrat, Sen Elizabeth Warren, warned that Warsh’s nomination is the
“latest step in Trump’s attempt to seize control of the Fed”.
With a narrow partisan split on the committee, a single Republican’s opposition could trigger an impasse. Warsh, a former banker at Morgan Stanley and current fellow at the Hoover Institution, previously favoured higher interest rates but recently endorsed many of Trump’s policy positions.
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026