Trump nominates new Fed board member

In a Truth Social post on Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump tapped Stephen Miran, current chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to temporarily fill a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Miran will serve on the board until Jan. 31, 2026. The White House is still searching for a permanent replacement.

What is the board of governors? The group of seven, presidentially-appointed members, or governors, vote monthly on federal interest rates. They report to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Last week, former Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler tendered her resignation without explanation, several months before her term was slated to expire. The Senate will have to confirm Miran. The Federal Open Market Committee, on which the governors are permanent voting members, convenes next on Sept. 16.

Who is Miran? Miran joined the White House council in March, but he has served as an economist for years. He advised the Treasury Department from 2020 to 2021. He was also a senior strategist for Hudson Bay Capital Management and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He is credited with authoring the “Mar-a-Lago Accords,” an unofficial plan to devalue the U.S. dollar to manage the deficit. An international trade policy paper he published last year outlined many of the tariff strategies Trump is employing now in renegotiating policies with trading partners around the world.

How is this expected to affect decisions on interest rates? Miran, like Trump, has publicly said that the Federal Reserve should have lowered interest rates months ago. His vote on the board is expected to add pressure on Powell to do so. At the July meeting, the group voted to keep interest rates steady for the fifth consecutive time, but two governors dissented. It was the first double dissent among the board, which typically votes unanimously, in more than 30 years.

Dig deeper: David Bahnsen discusses Trump’s attacks on Powell and the interest rates on The World and Everything in It podcast.