President Donald Trump swore in Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday, praising independence even as his public pressure on the Fed has alarmed both parties. Warsh, 56, inherits a job shaped by Jerome Powell’s bruising clashes with Tru
On Friday morning, in the East Room, Kevin Warsh stepped forward and took the oath that made him chair of the Federal Reserve.
The setting was ceremonial—high-profile guests filled the room. including Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. House Speaker Mike Johnson. and a range of other politicians and Cabinet officials. But the message around the event landed with an edge: this Fed chair was being installed while President Donald Trump continued to press for faster. deeper interest rate cuts.
At the start of the ceremony, Trump said he wanted Warsh “just do your own thing and do a great job.” “I want Kevin to be totally independent,” Trump added. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody.”
Warsh became the first Fed chair to be sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan in 1987—an unfamiliar detail that underscored how unusual Trump’s second-term posture toward the central bank has been. Trump’s actions toward the Fed have drawn bipartisan alarms about executive influence on an institution built to be historically independent.
Clarence Thomas delivered the oath to Warsh.
Once sworn in, Warsh laid out a mission he said would pair discipline with momentum. “Our mandate at the Fed is to promote price stability and maximum employment,” he said. He argued that when those aims are pursued “with wisdom and clarity. ” independence and resolve can help “inflation can be lower. growth stronger. real take home pay higher. ” and that America’s global position can be “more secure.”.
He also promised an approach aimed at change without drifting. “To fulfill this mission. I will lead a reform-oriented Federal Reserve. ” Warsh said. describing “learning from past successes and mistakes. ” “escaping static frameworks and models. ” and “upholding clear standards of integrity and performance.” He pledged. in effect. to steer the Fed back toward its core.
Warsh is 56 and becomes the 11th Fed chair of the modern banking era, succeeding Jerome Powell, who served eight years. Powell will continue at the Fed as a governor. The move makes Powell the first Fed chair to shift into the governor role—one that is expected to be rare. with the last similar instance occurring in nearly 80 years.
Powell had been a major target of Trump’s ire after Powell did not lower rates as quickly or steeply as the president wanted. Trump accused Powell of having “Trump derangement syndrome. ” even though the Fed lowered its benchmark borrowing rate by three-quarters of a percentage point and raised by 4.25 points during one stretch of the Joe Biden presidency.
Despite Trump’s calls, markets have been betting that the Fed will stay on hold through most, if not all, of 2026—then possibly hike rates in early 2027.
Warsh’s path to the chair included a competition that began in the summer of 2025 and stretched through a wide field. It included as many as 11 candidates, ranging from current and former Fed officials to prominent economists and Wall Street strategists.
Friday’s swearing-in also marked Warsh’s second stint at the Fed. He previously served as governor from 2006 to 2011. a period when the central bank joined forces with Treasury officials to rescue the economy from the global financial crisis. The record of that era matters because Warsh later grew critical of the Fed’s crisis-era approach—saying policies that helped in emergencies had remained in place too long and that the central bank had overreached its mandate for stable prices and low unemployment.
He pointed to what he described as mission creep, citing prior efforts to address climate change and social inequality as areas he said went beyond the Fed’s proper bounds. He has vowed to trim down the central bank’s imprint on markets.
That stance lands in a different economic moment than the crisis years. Powell’s term, as described in the run-up to Warsh, was marked by repeated and often personal criticism from Trump. It also coincided with inflation running above the Fed’s 2% goal for five years running.
Warsh, however, has vowed he can “both control inflation while lowering benchmark rates.”
Between Fed roles. Warsh spent time at Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office. and he worked as a lecturer at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution. He had also been seen as a leading candidate for Fed chair when Trump made clear he was not going to renominate Janet Yellen. In the end, Trump chose Powell—reportedly at the urging of former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
For now. the scene in the East Room captured the contradiction at the heart of this transition: a president insisting he wants independence. while the Fed’s next chair prepares for the kind of pressure that has already shaped the last four years of policy argument—one rate decision. and one public clash at a time.
Kevin Warsh Federal Reserve chair Trump rate cuts Jerome Powell interest rates East Room swearing in Clarence Thomas Brett Kavanaugh House Speaker Mike Johnson inflation maximum employment price stability