Who is Kevin Warsh? Meet Donald Trump’s pick for next US Fed chair

President Donald Trump on Friday announced Kevin Warsh as his choice for the next chair of the US Federal Reserve. The announcement came after the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged this week under current chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump again criticised, calling him a “moron.” Warsh beat out three other contenders for the top job—Fed Governor Christopher Waller, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder, and Trump’s chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett. Warsh’s appointment would require confirmation by the US Senate, where he is expected to face close scrutiny, including from members of Trump’s own Republican Party.

All about Kevin Warsh

Kevin Warsh is a former senior official at the US Federal Reserve. He served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. Before joining the central bank, Warsh worked as a mergers and acquisitions banker at Morgan Stanley.


He later became part of former president George W. Bush’s administration, serving as a White House economic policy adviser from 2002 to 2006, before being appointed to the Fed’s Board of Governors.

During Trump’s first term, Warsh was considered for the role of Fed chair, but Powell was ultimately selected.

As a Fed governor, Warsh worked closely with then-chair Ben Bernanke during the 2008 global financial crisis, helping shape the central bank’s response to the turmoil. He became an important link between policymakers and financial markets, even as he grew increasingly critical of certain Fed measures, including interest rate cuts aimed at limiting economic damage.

Warsh stepped down from the Fed in 2011, several years before his term was due to end in 2018. At the time, he was widely viewed as an “inflation hawk”—a label for policymakers who place strong emphasis on price stability and controlling inflation.

A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, a member of the family behind the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire. Her father, billionaire Ronald Lauder, is a longtime associate of Trump.

During his time at the Fed, Warsh consistently expressed concern about inflation risks and pushed for higher interest rates, even though inflation remained below the central bank’s 2% target. He also opposed the Fed’s decision to purchase US government bonds after the financial crisis through its quantitative easing programme, which was designed to support the economy by reducing borrowing costs.

Warsh played a key role in shaping the Fed’s broader crisis response, including efforts to facilitate the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase and the government’s bailout of insurance giant American International Group. He has generally argued in favour of the Fed maintaining a smaller balance sheet.

In later years, Warsh linked lower interest rates to a reduced Fed balance sheet, contending that scaling back the central bank’s presence in financial markets—an approach that could push up long-term borrowing costs—would give policymakers greater flexibility to cut short-term rates.

As part of this view, he has called for changes to the 1951 agreement that defined the Fed’s independence in monetary policy while leaving government spending and taxation to the Treasury. Warsh has argued for closer coordination between the Fed’s balance sheet management and the Treasury Department’s debt issuance to meet the government’s financial needs.