President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve was approved by a vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday.
56-year-old Kevin Warsh, a lawyer and financier, becomes the wealthiest chairman of the Fed after the Republican-controlled Senate voted 54 to 45 to confirm him.
‘He will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best!’
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh’s confirmation.
Warsh is expected to support the president’s demand to lower interest rates despite his previous opposition to dropping rates. He has justified his change of heart by arguing that artificial intelligence will so drastically increase productivity that it will give the Fed room to lower rates.
“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,” Trump said on social media in January. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Warsh had “sucked up to Donald Trump to snag his dream job” at the Fed.
“The Senate should not be aiding and abetting Donald Trump’s illegal takeover of the Fed by installing his chosen sock puppet as chair,” she added. “It’s an invitation for corruption and for economic catastrophe. We have the power to stop it, and we should be using that power.”
The president has intensely criticized Powell for refusing to lower rates.
“We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world. Jerome Powell has done a terrible job. And frankly, I don’t think he could do a worse job. He’s called everything wrong,” Trump said to reporters in July.
He has referred to Powell as a “knucklehead” and a “stupid guy” and has accused him of committing fraud while overseeing a billion-dollar renovation of the Fed’s offices in Washington, D.C.
Powell has denied the allegations and tried to defend the Fed against charges of politicization.
“We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure,” Powell said in April 2025. “People can say whatever they want. … That’s not a problem, but we will do what we do strictly without consideration of political or any other extraneous factors.”
RELATED: Trump bashes Fed chair after inflation report drops: ‘He’s a knucklehead. Stupid guy.’
Some have argued that Warsh will not be able to significantly change the policy at the Federal Reserve by himself, as the interest rates are determined by a full vote of the Fed governors.
On Tuesday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation had spiked to 3.8%, likely as a result of increasing oil prices from the war on Iran.
Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, the billionaire heiress to the Estee Lauder fortune.
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