{"id":448368,"date":"2026-01-30T23:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448368\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:34:11","slug":"donald-trump-announces-kevin-warsh-as-next-fed-chair-replacing-jerome-powell-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448368\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump announces Kevin Warsh as next Fed chair, replacing Jerome Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has chosen former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as head of the US central bank.<\/p>\n

It is a pick likely to result in sharp changes to the powerful agency that could bring it closer to the White House and reduce its longtime independence from day-to-day politics.<\/p>\n

Mr Powell’s term will expire in May.<\/p>\n

“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. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting’, and he will never let you down,” Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump chose Mr Powell to lead the Fed in 2017, but this year has relentlessly assailed him for not cutting interest rates quickly enough.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Donald Trump says Kevin Warsh ‘will never let you down’. (Truth Social: Donald Trump)<\/p>\n

The appointment, which requires Senate confirmation, amounts to a return trip for Mr Warsh, 55, who was a member of the Fed’s board from 2006 to 2011.<\/p>\n

He was the youngest governor in history when he was appointed at age 35.<\/p>\n

US federal prosecutors open criminal inquiry into US Federal Reserve chair<\/a><\/p>\n

The US attorney’s office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair.<\/p>\n

He is currently a fellow at the right-leaning Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.<\/p>\n

In some ways, Mr Warsh is an unlikely choice for the Republican president because he has long been a hawk in Fed parlance, or someone who typically supports higher interest rates to control inflation.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has said the Fed’s key rate should be as low as 1 per cent, far below its current level of about 3.6 per cent, a stance few economists endorse.<\/p>\n

During his time as governor, Mr Warsh objected to some of the low-interest rate policies that the Fed pursued during and after the 2008-09 global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

He also often expressed concern at that time that inflation would soon accelerate, even though it remained at rock-bottom levels for many years after that recession ended.<\/p>\n

But more recently, however, in speeches and opinion columns, Mr Warsh has said he supports lower rates.<\/p>\n

Controlling the Fed<\/p>\n

Mr Warsh’s appointment would be a major step toward Mr Trump asserting more control over the Fed, one of the few remaining independent federal agencies.<\/p>\n

Gold, silver plummet ahead of Fed Reserve chair appointment<\/a><\/p>\n

Gold and silver prices plummet, sparked by reports US President Donald Trump is set to announce a new US Federal Reserve chair.<\/p>\n

While all presidents influence Fed policy through appointments, Mr Trump’s rhetorical attacks on the central bank have raised concerns about its status as an independent institution.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes after an extended and unusually public search that underscored the importance of the decision to Mr Trump and the potential impact it could have on the economy.<\/p>\n

The chair of the Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful economic officials in the world, tasked with combating inflation in the United States while also supporting maximum employment.<\/p>\n

The Fed is also the nation’s top banking regulator.<\/p>\n

The Fed’s rate decisions, over time, influence borrowing costs throughout the economy, including for mortgages, car loans and credit cards.<\/p>\n

For now, Mr Warsh would fill a seat on the Fed’s governing board that was temporarily occupied by Stephen Miran, a White House adviser who Mr Trump appointed in September.<\/p>\n

Once on the board, Mr Trump could then elevate Mr Warsh to the chair position when Mr Powell’s term ends in May.<\/p>\n

Potential challenges and pushback\"A<\/p>\n

Kevin Warsh will have just one vote on a rate-setting committee. (Reuters: Lucas Jackson)<\/p>\n

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr Warsh would face challenges in pushing interest rates much lower.<\/p>\n

The chair is just one member of the Fed’s 19-person rate-setting committee, with 12 of those officials voting on each rate decision.<\/p>\n

The committee is already split between those worried about persistent inflation, who would like to keep rates unchanged, and those who think that recent upticks in unemployment point to a stumbling economy that needs lower interest rates to bolster hiring.<\/p>\n

Financial markets could also push back.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Donald Trump says Jerome Powell (right) did not cut interest rates fast enough. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)<\/p>\n

If the Fed cuts its short-term rate too aggressively and is seen as doing so for political reasons, then Wall Street investors could sell Treasury bonds out of fear that inflation would rise.<\/p>\n

Such sales would push up longer-term interest rates, including mortgage rates, and backfire on Mr Warsh.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump considered appointing Mr Warsh as Fed chair during his first term, though ultimately he went with Mr Powell.<\/p>\n

Mr Warsh’s father-in-law is Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and a longtime donor and confidant of Mr Trump’s.<\/p>\n

AP\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump has chosen former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,9567,2490,13699,176,231620,25298],"class_list":["post-448368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-donald-trump","tag-fed","tag-federal-reserve","tag-kevin-warsh","tag-president-of-the-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}