Washington. President Donald Trump says he will nominate former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the US central bank when Powell’s term ends in May, betting that Warsh can deliver the stronger growth Trump promised voters.

When Trump said Warsh comes from “central casting,” the president revealed much about his own views of the 55-year-old’s appearance and conventional pedigree. Warsh has many of the hallmarks of a traditional choice to lead the world’s most powerful central bank, even as the nomination comes at an unconventional moment for the Fed, with Trump openly pressing for interest rate cuts aligned with White House priorities.

“He’s very smart, very good, strong, young — pretty young,” Trump told reporters Friday. “He was the central casting guy that people wanted.”

The president added, “Looks don’t mean anything, but he’s got the look.”

Rate cuts of the scale Trump has advocated could temporarily boost growth, but they also risk overheating an economy where inflation remains elevated and affordability pressures weigh heavily on many Americans.

Warsh was a runner-up for the Fed chair position in 2017, when Trump instead selected Powell. Trump has since said he received bad advice in that decision.

Warsh holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He is married to Jane Lauder, daughter of cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, a major Republican donor.

At 35, Warsh became the youngest governor on the Fed’s seven-member board, serving from 2006 to 2011. He previously worked as an economic aide in President George W. Bush’s administration and as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

During the 2008–09 financial crisis, Warsh worked closely with then-Chair Ben Bernanke. In his memoirs, Bernanke described Warsh as “one of my closest advisers and confidants,” citing his political instincts, market knowledge and Wall Street connections.

Still, Warsh was sometimes skeptical about the severity of the crisis. As mortgage defaults and layoffs mounted, he argued for keeping interest rates higher even as the economy flirted with deflation. He warned in 2008 that further rate cuts could stoke inflation — a concern that did not materialize even after rates fell near zero.

In 2011, Warsh objected to the Fed’s decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds to lower long-term rates, though he ultimately supported the move at Bernanke’s request.

Warsh has also voiced views aligned with pre-Trump Republican orthodoxy. In a 2010 speech, he warned against “the creep of trade protectionism,” calling it the opposite of “pro-growth policies.” Trump later reshaped GOP thinking by imposing sweeping import tariffs after declaring an economic emergency.

More recently, Warsh has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and a partner at Duquesne Family Office, which manages the fortune of billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.

In recent months, Warsh has appeared to actively campaign for the Fed post through interviews and opinion pieces. He has sharply criticized the central bank, calling for “regime change” and faulting Powell for addressing issues such as climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion, which Warsh says fall outside the Fed’s mandate.

“Fed policy has been broken for quite a long time,” Warsh said in a July interview on CNBC.

In a November Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Warsh argued the Fed should abandon the idea that inflation results from strong growth and rising wages. Instead, he wrote, inflation stems from excessive government spending and money creation.

He has also argued that technologies such as artificial intelligence will boost productivity and curb inflation — a view that closely aligns with Trump’s belief that inflation has been defeated and that AI will drive economic growth.

“AI will be a significant disinflationary force,” Warsh wrote, “increasing productivity and bolstering American competitiveness.”

Add as a preferred source on Google +