Trump Administration Prepares to Back Warsh for Fed Chair

Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration is preparing for the president to nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to announce his pick to lead the US central bank on Friday morning.

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The people, who requested anonymity to discuss matters not yet public, cautioned that the selection is not final until Trump makes a formal announcement.

WATCH: Bloomberg’s Mike McKee reports on the latest.Source: Bloomberg

The White House and Warsh did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Warsh, a former Fed governor and one of the four finalists on Trump’s shortlist to be the next central bank leader, visited the White House on Thursday, one person said.

Stocks fell and Treasury yields pushed higher on bets Warsh will become the next Fed chair. The US dollar extended gains, while precious metals declined.

Prediction markets showed a surge in bets earlier Thursday on Warsh being chosen.

Other candidates on the shortlist have included National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Fed Governor Christopher Waller and BlackRock Inc. executive Rick Rieder.

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The president teased his impending announcement without giving the name away Thursday evening, saying the choice wouldn’t be too surprising and will be someone known to “everyone” in the financial world.

“A lot of people think this is somebody that could’ve been there a few years ago,” Trump said.

Warsh served on the US central bank’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 and has advised Trump on economic policy. If nominated and confirmed, he would succeed Jerome Powell, whose term at the helm ends in May. It would mark a comeback for Warsh, 55, whom the president passed over for the top job in 2017 when he selected Powell.

Warsh has aligned himself with the president in recent months by arguing publicly for lower interest rates, going against his longstanding reputation as an inflation hawk.

Trump has sought a candidate who would be broadly acceptable to markets and also shares his inclination to cut interest rates further and faster.

The Fed earlier this week held rates steady after lowering them three times at the end of 2025.

Earlier: Fed Holds Rates as Window for Another Powell Cut Begins to Close

Trump’s pick may face a complicated path to confirmation in the US Senate. Warsh is likely to be palatable to a broad swath of Republican senators, with Bill Hagerty of Tennessee calling him “a very clear choice that the markets would accept and appreciate.”

But a key senator, Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who sits on the Banking Committee, has vowed to block any of Trump’s Fed nominees until the US Justice Department resolves an investigation into the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters.

That investigation, which also centers around Powell’s testimony to Congress, has further intensified worries about threats to the Fed’s independence.

“The Fed noms are not going to change until the investigation and potential indictment of Chair Powell is completed,” Tillis told reporters at the US Capitol Thursday. “DOJ’s got to decide when I lift those holds. It gets lifted the day that case is adjudicated or withdrawn.”

Asked on Thursday night if a Fed chair nominee could be confirmed without Tillis, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “probably not.”

–With assistance from Silla Brush, Paul Dobson, Steven T. Dennis, John Harney, Justin Sink, Nancy Cook and Michael McKee.

(Updates with Thune comment, in final paragraph.)

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