Senate Confirms Kevin Warsh As Fed Chair In Most Partisan Vote Ever

Update: In a largely party-line vote, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee Kevin Warsh to a 14-year term as the next Chair of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Jerome Powell whose term as chair ends this Friday.

The 54-45 vote was the slimmest confirmation margin ever for a head of a central bank, reflecting fears that he’ll be Trump’s puppet. 

Trump has made no secret that he expects rates to lower under Warsh after repeatedly slamming Powell for monetary policy Trump feels is too restrictive. 

Steve Bannon, however, doesn’t think so…

Ahead of the vote, Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon used his “War Room” podcast to prepare supporters for disappointment. The former Trump strategist said fresh inflation data made it “highly unlikely” that Warsh would have “the flexibility to cut rates in June,” when he will chair the central bank’s policy meeting for the first time.

“This makes it very difficult for Warsh,” Bannon said Tuesday, hours after the Labor Department reported that April inflation had jumped to 3.8 percent.

His guest, conservative commentator Eric Bolling, projected no rate cuts through the end of the year and ventured that the Warsh-led Fed may even need a modest rate hike to curb inflation. –WaPo

Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to support Warsh. 

Developing…

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Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times,

Kevin Warsh will be returning to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

 

The U.S. Senate voted 51–45 to approve Warsh’s nomination to a 14-year term on the central bank’s board on May 12, joining six other members. Four senators did not file a vote.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) crossed party lines to support President Donald Trump’s nominee.

Warsh’s tenure as Fed governor will run until 2040.

He previously served on the board from 2006 to 2011, when he resigned over differences regarding the leadership’s post-crisis quantitative easing program.

Governors serve 14-year terms to prevent political pressure.

Their roles consist of voting on monetary policy, supervising and regulating the financial system, and overseeing the Fed’s 12 regional banks.

The vote also marked the end of Stephen Miran’s brief tenure on the board.

Miran, who previously served as head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, was nominated by the president last summer to fill the seat vacated by Adriana Kugler. It is unclear if he plans to return to the Trump administration.

Senators will next vote on Warsh’s confirmation as head of the Federal Reserve, which could happen as early as May 13.

Walking a Minefield

Warsh’s return to the Fed could be marred by challenges, mainly due to the 11-week-old Iranian conflict reviving price pressures across the U.S. economy.

April’s annual consumer inflation rate accelerated to 3.8 percent, the highest level since May 2023 and above consensus forecasts.

The war has lifted global energy prices, forcing drivers to pay more at the pump.

The national average for a gallon of gasoline—as of May 12—is parked at $4.50.

Structural inflation could also be under threat.

Twelve-month core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, edged higher to 2.8 percent, topping estimates.

Warsh has been a frequent critic of the Fed’s policy decisions.

He has argued that the central bank can lower interest rates as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom would be disinflationary and reduce business and consumer prices.

At the same time, Warsh has stated that the Fed should scale back its balance sheet use.

A point of contention is whether Warsh will maintain Fed independence.

He has reaffirmed his support for monetary autonomy. But it does not mean it is under threat if elected officials weigh in on policy, he said.

Kevin Warsh (L), U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chair of the Federal Reserve during his Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs confirmation hearing in Washington on April 21, 2026.  Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“I do not believe the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials—presidents, senators, or members of the House—state their views on interest rates,” Warsh said in his opening remarks in front of the Senate Banking Committee.

Despite his clarification on Fed independence, there are still questions surrounding how he would navigate policy, says Rebecca Homkes, an economist and former fellow at the London School of Economics Center for Economic Performance.

“Warsh’s over-bullishness on AI’s impact on productivity should be more of a discussion, as we need the next Fed Chair to be working to steer a policy approach of better, robust data and research to understand this technology,” she told The Epoch Times.

“What’s raising more eyebrows is his insistence on his reform agenda, including changes to responsibilities, press briefings, and what topic areas they cover.”

Warsh has teased a series of changes he could bring to the Fed: updating long-standing economic models, reforming how the central bank communicates with the public, and potentially how the Fed targets inflation.

Lawrence Gillum, chief fixed-income strategist at LPL Financial, says Warsh’s approach to monetary policy would likely be far more traditional than the approach practiced over the past 20 years.

“Rather than leaving heavily on intervention and detailed promises about the future path of rates, Warsh has consistently argued for restraint, humility, and a greater reliance on incoming data,” Gillum said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

If confirmed, Warsh would head the June 16 to June 17 Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting.

Investors have priced in the expectation that the Fed will not lower interest rates at all this year. A growing chorus of traders has started forecasting a rate hike sometime in 2027.