Who is Kevin Warsh, Trump's pick to succeed Powell as Fed chair?

US President Donald Trump has nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank after Jerome Powell steps down in May

United States President Donald Trump on Friday nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to lead the country’s central bank as its chairman. While announcing his nomination, Trump said that Warsh is a “central casting” who will “never let you down”.

Early life and education

Now 55, Warsh was raised in upstate New York and educated in public schools before studying public policy at Stanford University, where he graduated in the early 1990s. He later earned a law degree from Harvard. His early career was spent on Wall Street, including several years at Morgan Stanley, before he moved into public service.

 

In 2002, Warsh joined the administration of former President George W Bush as an economic policy adviser. That same year, he married Jane Lauder, an executive at Estée Lauder and a member of one of the wealthiest business families in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal. His father-in-law, Ronald Lauder, is a prominent Republican donor and was a former classmate of Trump, the report added.

 

Warsh’s previous stint at the Federal Reserve

Warsh was nominated to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in 2006. At 35, he became the youngest person ever appointed to the role. “Kevin Warsh became the youngest Fed Governor, ever, at 35, and served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 until 2011, as the Federal Reserve’s representative to the Group of Twenty (G-20), and as the Board’s emissary to the emerging and advanced economies in Asia. In addition, he was administrative governor, managing and overseeing the Board’s operations, personnel, and financial performance,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

 

His time at the central bank was quickly defined by crisis. The financial turmoil of 2008 placed the Fed at the centre of efforts to stabilise the banking system. Warsh was reportedly closely involved in key rescue operations, including the government’s support for insurer AIG and the takeover of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan.

 

Although he initially backed the Fed’s aggressive measures to contain the crisis, Warsh grew increasingly uneasy about the longer-term risks of loose monetary policy. By 2010, he was voicing concern that large-scale asset purchases and an expanding balance sheet could fuel inflation.

 

After leaving the Fed in 2011, Warsh joined Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a policy think tank known for its conservative leanings. He also took on corporate roles, including a board position at logistics group UPS. Following Trump’s election victory in 2016, Warsh was included in an informal group of business figures advising the incoming administration.

 

Why Warsh was picked for the Fed’s top job

He was widely discussed as a potential candidate for Fed chair when the post opened in 2017, but Trump ultimately chose Jerome Powell, calling Warsh “too youthful looking”.

 

Warsh is now viewed as more supportive of lower borrowing costs in the near term. He has also defended some of Trump’s trade policies, including tariffs imposed across nations.

 

As recently as November 2025, he authored an article in The Wall Street Journal titled 'The Federal Reserve’s Broken Leadership', in which he backed Trump's deregulatory agenda and argued that common Americans would have higher pay and greater purchasing power if the Fed got its act together.  (With inputs from The Wall Street Journal and BBC)