President Donald Trump wants to shake up the Federal Reserve, and he has sights set on the right person for the job.
Trump is considering Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, to replace Jerome Powell as the Chair of the Federal Reserve, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Publicly, the president made it clear that he’s not happy with Powell. In private, Trump has discussed ousting Powell before his Fed term is up in May 2026, the Journal reported.
Trump blasted Powell in a Truth Social post on Thursday, saying the Fed chair is “always TOO LATE AND WRONG” before adding that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Also on Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he has the authority to get rid of Powell, despite Powell’s position that such a move is against the law.
“If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump said.
Trump has already had meetings with Warsh at Mar-a-Lago about potentially selecting him to replace Powell before Powell’s term is over, The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Warsh, 55, is a former Morgan Stanley banker who served as an economic advisor to President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2006 and a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011. Warsh helped rescue struggling banks following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and helped shape the country’s larger response to the crisis.
Warsh also worked on Trump’s second term transition team, and was previously one of the president’s top picks for Treasury Secretary before he ultimately selected Scott Bessent. During his first term in office, Trump had also considered Warsh for Fed Chair in 2017 before choosing Powell.
Warsh, who studied public policy at Stanford University before attending Harvard Law School, has invested in crypto-related startups including now-defunct cryptocurrency platform Basis and asset management platform Bitwise, which offers cryptocurrency index funds, according to Pitchbook. Warsh wrote in a 2022 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that crypto offers both “promise and peril for the American-led global financial system,” and advocated for the Federal Reserve to adopt a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to compete with China’s digital yuan.
Warsh, a known financial hawk, has been critical of the US’s expanding debt, saying in July that inflation is the fault of “irresponsible government spending and excessive money printing.”
He is married to Jane Lauder, an Estée Lauder heir and daughter of Ron Lauder, who helped spark Trump’s obsession with buying Greenland.
Whether Warsh actually wants the job is not clear, and the financier did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Warsh has, however, advised that Trump should not prematurely fire Powell and should let the Chair carry out his full term, The Journal reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
