As President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh is stepping back into the spotlight – and in the hot seat – as he faces lawmakers Tuesday in a high-stakes confirmation hearing that could shape the future of U.S. monetary policy.
Trump announced Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell at the Fed in January, ending months of speculation over who he’d pick to head the world’s most powerful central bank. Powell is set to complete his term as chairman in May.
TRUMP NOMINATES KEVIN WARSH TO SUCCEED JEROME POWELL AS FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR
“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 Truth Social. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down. Congratulations Kevin!”
Here’s what to know about Warsh and his path to the Fed’s top job:
Warsh, born in 1970, 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 economics degree (Powell earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University and a law degree from Georgetown).
Warsh spent time working in the private sector at Morgan Stanley before joining President George W. Bush’s administration in 2002, burnishing his credentials in Republican policy circles until Bush nominated him to the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2006. At age 35, he became the youngest Fed governor in history.
Since leaving the Fed in 2011, Warsh has served as 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 serves on the board of UPS and is a trustee of the Group of Thirty and the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office.
In 2017, he was considered by Trump to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair. The president instead chose Powell as her successor. Warsh was also in the running to serve as treasury secretary last fall before Trump nominated hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.
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Perhaps no finalist for Fed chairman was as critical of Powell as Warsh. He has advocated for wholesale changes to the Fed’s approach to policy, calling the central bank’s economic models outdated and opaque while railing against the build-up of its balance sheet.
Despite generating a reputation as one of the Fed’s foremost inflation “hawks” during his stint on the Board of Governors, Warsh had said as recently as last fall that the Fed has room to ease borrowing costs.
“Prices can be lower,” Warsh told Fox News’ “Special Report” in October, “but it’s going to require regime change at the Fed.”
Though he has echoed Trump’s calls for Powell to lower interest rates throughout his candidacy 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.
As the Fed wrestles with how to set rates and adapt to Trump’s tariffs, Warsh – once a critic of protectionist trade policies – said last summer that tariffs would not cause lasting inflation.
Following last spring’s tariff announcements, inflation trended higher over the course of the year and remains closer to 3% than the Fed’s 2% target, though policymakers anticipate it trending closer to target over the course of 2026 barring further tariff announcements. Elevated inflation along with a slowing labor market has complicated the outlook for rate cuts and that dynamic may persist late into this year.
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Still, any notion that Warsh would adopt a dovish approach to handling policy would stand in contrast to his record at the Fed, where he was critical of the central bank’s plan to continue buying Treasury bonds while keeping interest rates low for an extended period of time as the job market languished during the 2008 housing crisis.
Warsh’s ties to Wall Street, which reportedly remain strong today, allowed him to serve as the Fed’s chief liaison to the banking sector during that period.
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