Trump to Nominate Stephen Miran to Fed Board. What to Know About His Policy Views.

Trump will nominate Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)

President Donald Trump will nominate Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, filling the seat vacated by Adriana Kugler, who resigned months before her term was set to expire in January 2026.

The move gives Trump his first opportunity to reshape the central bank’s leadership in his second term.

“He has been with me from the beginning of my Second Term, and his expertise in the World of Economics is unparalleled — He will do an outstanding job,” Trump wrote of Miran in his announcement on Truth Social.

Miran, a Harvard-trained economist, has become one of the president’s most trusted advisers on economic policy. He is the author of an influential paper, published in November 2024, that argued the Trump administration should strike a trade and currency deal he called the Mar-a-Lago Accord. That deal would see the U.S. attempt to lower the long-term value of the dollar. Miran has since said the paper doesn’t represent administration policy.

Miran has also publicly supported the president’s push to influence the Fed to lower interest rates. “It’s really inconvenient for some that President Trump—who’s busy negotiating trade deals, enacting tax law, and stopping wars—has such a great track record on interest rates, in both the dovish and hawkish directions. But the track record is there,” Miran wrote on social media this month.

Miran’s nomination comes as the White House has questioned the importance of central bank independence. “The Fed has never been truly isolated from the rest of government, particularly the Treasury Department,” Miran wrote in an opinion piece for Barron’s in 2024 titled The Fed Isn’t as Independent as it Seems.

“[T]he wall between fiscal and monetary policy is already partially broken down, and the central bank’s independence is overstated,” he wrote.

The appointment is expected to be temporary. Trump said he plans to nominate a second candidate for a full 14-year term beginning in January. The president would likely back that person as successor to current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom he has repeatedly critcized this year for failing to lower interest rates.

Both appointments require Senate confirmation, a process likely to take four to eight weeks after lawmakers return from August recess. That timeline makes it unlikely the new governor will be seated in time for the Fed’s September policy meeting.

Even a temporary change tips the seven-member Board majority toward Trump appointees, accelerating the president’s broader deregulatory agenda. Kugler opposed easing bank capital requirements, including the supplementary leverage ratio, a stance that put her at odds with industry lobbying and Trump’s pro-business philosophy. Miran’s nomination, if approved, could give Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman more support to push through rule changes that would free up bank lending capacity.

The Fed is likely to start cutting interest rates in September amid growing fears of an economic slowdown. Miran will help determine how aggressively the central bank responds to economic weakness.

Miran declined to comment for this story.

Trump has floated several names for the longer-term role, including former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and economic adviser Kevin Hassett. Current Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman are also said to be under consideration for the job.

Miran, who was already thought to be advising the president in his search for the next chair, could now play an outsize role in picking Powell’s successor.

On Thursday, just hours before his nomination was announced, Miran praised Waller in a Bloomberg interview. “I think Governor Waller has built up a really impressive track record during his last few years at the Fed with his predictions about inflation, with his predictions about where Fed policy needed to move to respond to that inflation,” he said.

“I think he’s done himself a big credit recently as well, not succumbing to the tariff derangement syndrome that many others throughout the country but particularly at the Fed seem to have succumbed to.”

Waller, who supported a quarter-percentage-point rate cut at the Fed’s July meeting, is known for his data-driven pragmatism. He has argued for focusing on underlying inflation stripped of tariff effects, and has supported proactive cuts as labor-market risks rise. His appointment would signal an easing bias.

Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economist, would bring a unique combination of academic credentials and political loyalty to the role and could reshape how the Fed approaches its dual mandate. Hassett was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, and often served as the administration’s intellectual voice defending lower rates.

Warsh has a more hawkish stance on long-term inflation risks but supports easing during downturns. His appointment would signal Trump’s willingness to prioritize institutional credibility over short-term political pressure, potentially strengthening the dollar and lowering bond yields as investors price in more disciplined policy.

“President Trump will continue to nominate the most competent and experienced individuals to deliver on his pledge to Make America Wealthy Again,” said White House Spokesman Kush Desai in a statement to Barron’s. “Unless it comes from President Trump himself, however, any discussion about personnel decisions should be regarded as pure speculation.”

Write to Nicole Goodkind at nicole.goodkind@barrons.com