FILE PHOTO: Kevin Warsh, Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering a former investment banker who served on the Federal Reserve Board for his Treasury secretary — with plans to possibly later select him to lead the Federal Reserve once Jerome Powell’s term as chair ends in 2026.
Trump talked with Kevin Warsh a day earlier at Mar-a-Lago about the idea, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal characterized Warsh as a "front-runner" though Trump hadn't yet settled on a decision.
Additionally, Trump is weighing investor Scott Bessent to head the National Economic Council, with plans to then move him to Treasury secretary once Warsh takes the helm at the Fed.
The Journal reported that Warsh was asked about his past stance on tariffs — a tool he's previously criticized.
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“Mr. Trump’s mercantilist rhetoric may prove more than a negotiating tactic, auguring new tariff and trade restrictions the world over,” Warsh wrote in a 2018 op-ed in the Journal. “Economic isolationism would do great harm to our economic growth prospects.”
Warsh was a Federal Reserve board member from 2006 to 2011, which included the Great Recession. Prior to that, he served at the White House as then-President George W. Bush’s special assistant for economic policy and as executive secretary of the National Economic Council.
Bessent, meanwhile, is an investor and hedge fund manager who founded Key Square Capital Management. He was panned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who wrote on X: "Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for [Donald Trump] to consider feedback. My view [for what it's worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas [Howard Lutnick] will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another."