Kevin Warsh

Tenure as governor

Warsh was sworn in on February 24, 2006, by Vice President Dick Cheney at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He became known as a key ally of Bernanke and a conduit for executives in financial markets, specializing in Wall Street finance. Warsh expressed concerns about persistent inflation in remarks before the New York Stock Exchange in November, defying figures indicating that price pressures were being eased. After fears of a worldwide financial crisis mounted in February 2007, he remained optimistic about market liquidity. Warsh testified before the House Committee on Financial Services in July, stating that the subprime mortgage crisis did not yet present systemic risk. He was an initial critic of protecting systemically important financial institutions. Warsh was involved in securing an emergency loan to secure Bear Stearns.

Warsh was significantly involved in the Federal Reserve's response to the financial crisis. According to David Wessel's In FED We Trust (2010), Warsh was among the "Four Musketeers", a consortium of policymakers at the Federal Reserve who led the central bank through the crisis, including Bernanke; vice chairman Donald Kohn; and Timothy Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was an opponent of allowing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to acquire additional assets and sought to regulate the entities, leaving open the possibility of acquiring them. Alongside Geithner, Warsh managed Lehman Brothers's various assets. Amid concerns involving Wachovia's acquisition of Golden West Financial, he proposed a merger between Wachovia and Morgan Stanley, and urged Robert K. Steel, the chief executive of Wachovia, to sell his firm to Goldman Sachs. Warsh additionally suggested to Gary Cohn, the president of Morgan Stanley, that his firm merge with Citigroup.

Warsh was involved in the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the bailout of American International Group. Warsh and Geithner negotiated the agreement that converted Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs into bank holding companies. Emails obtained by congressional investigators indicated that Warsh was sharply critical of Bank of America's decision to attempt to withdraw from acquiring Merrill. He pressured the company's board to find a successor to its chief executive, Ken Lewis. By January 2009, Warsh was among several candidates being considered to succeed Geithner as the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was considered a leading candidate alongside William C. Dudley, but withdrew himself from consideration that month. By July 2009, Warsh had widely been expected to leave the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

In September 2009, Warsh expressed the hawkish belief that the Federal Reserve should be prepared to raise interest rates, indicating that the central bank was deviating from the gradual interest rate increases championed by chairman Alan Greenspan. He was critical of purchasing mortgage debt or government bonds and skeptical of preemptive action to further expand the Federal Reserve's portfolio. In an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal, Warsh wrote that he had doubts Bernanke's plan to purchase US$600 billion in Treasury securities would improve the U.S. economy, though he voted for it. On February 10, 2011, Warsh announced that he would resign as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors at the end of March.

2011–2025: Post-governor work

After leaving the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Warsh became a partner at the Duquesne Family Office, the firm of Stanley Druckenmiller, and he served on the board of directors of United Parcel Service and Coupang. He became the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to the expected conclusion of Janet Yellen's term as chair of the Federal Reserve in 2018, Warsh was considered to be a possible nominee to succeed her.

2026–present: Chair of the Federal Reserve

Nomination and confirmation

In March 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that economic advisors to Donald Trump had presented him with several possible options to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, including Warsh.

After his victory in that year's presidential election, Trump began reexamining his possible nominees for secretary of the treasury amid concerns about Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent. According to The New York Times, Trump considered Warsh to serve as secretary of the treasury.

Trump had proposed nominating Warsh as secretary of the treasury and eventually as chair of the Federal Reserve after Powell's term was set to expire. Trump later nominated Bessent to serve as secretary of the treasury.

After Trump renewed his feud with Powell, Warsh was among several candidates seen as his possible successors.

In July 2025, the competition between Warsh and Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, had intensified into the type of "boardroom drama" that Trump engaged in on The Apprentice (2004–2017). The following month, Trump stated that the search for a successor to Powell had narrowed to three candidates, believed to be Warsh; Hassett; and Christopher Waller, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors who was favored by Trump advisors. Bessent later confirmed the names and added that the possible candidates also included Michelle Bowman, another member of the board, and the executive Rick Rieder. Interviews for the position concluded in December.

In January 2026, Trump stated that he preferred that Hassett remain at the National Economic Council. That month, The New York Times reported that Trump was set to name Warsh as his nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve. On January 30, Trump announced that he would nominate Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve.

Warsh's nomination occurred amid a federal investigation into Powell. North Carolina senator Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, stated that he would block Warsh's nomination until the inquiry's conclusion. Bessent sought to have the committee begin hearings on Warsh's nomination despite Tillis's blockade. A federal judge dismissed several grand jury subpoenas in the investigation into Powell in March; Jeanine Pirro, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, continued to pursue the case, threatening Warsh's nomination.

As Warsh's committee hearing neared in April 2026, several Republicans in the Senate publicly expressed discontent with the investigation, including Senate majority leader John Thune. He appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on April 21. Warsh asserted that he would be a "strictly independent" chairman, rejecting possible calls by Trump to cut interest rates. He advocated for various reforms to the Federal Reserve, including decreasing its portfolio. After the hearing, the Department of Justice announced that it was ending the inquiry into Powell, enabling his path to confirmation. After Tillis ended his objections to Warsh's nomination, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted to advance Warsh to the Senate in a 13–11 vote along party lines on April 29. The following day, Thune filed cloture on Warsh's nomination.

The Senate voted to advance Warsh's nomination in a 49–44 vote on May 11, 2026. The vote was largely along party lines, though Democratic senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Chris Coons of Delaware voted in favor of advancing the nomination. Warsh was confirmed as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in a 51–45 vote the following day. On May 13, the Senate voted to confirm Warsh as the chair of the Federal Reserve in a 54–45 vote. Fetterman was the only Democratic senator to vote in favor of the board nomination and the chair nomination. New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand did not vote. The vote to confirm Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve was the narrowest in U.S. history.

In August, Warsh reaffirmed the Federal Reserve's 2% long-term inflation target, measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, describing it as a "firm, fixed target." In a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he said inflation remained above the target and emphasized that short-term interest rates were the Federal Reserve's primary tool for fulfilling its dual mandate.

Tenure as chair

Prior to his confirmation, the Federal Reserve experienced several challenges, including Donald Trump's efforts to oust Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors; Trump's calls for lower interest rates despite the Iran war fuel crisis; a balance sheet exceeding US$6 trillion in assets; and internal divisions within the Federal Open Market Committee. Warsh was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House on May 22, 2026. He was the first chair of the Federal Reserve to take office in the White House since Alan Greenspan in 1987. In June, Warsh moved to appoint Paul Winfree and Daniel Heil as temporary policy advisors; Winfree had previously authored a section of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership (2023) concerning the Federal Reserve.

Warsh held his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting in June 2026. The meeting marked the introduction of several reforms to the Federal Reserve, including a shorter policy statement from the central bank. Warsh announced that he would establish several task forces on monetary policy, including communication and the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. He stated that he did not submit a public quarterly rate projection on the Federal Reserve's "dot plot", an indication of Warsh's criticism of forward guidance.

On September 16, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.75%-4%, citing elevated inflation.