Kevin M. Warsh is an American financier, former central banker, and President Donald Trump’s formal nominee to succeed Jerome Powell as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (when Powell’s term expires in May 2026). Warsh previously served as the youngest-ever member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (2006–2011), where he acted as the central bank’s primary liaison to Wall Street during the devastating 2008 global financial crisis. Currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Warsh has been a fierce, long-standing critic of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy over the last decade, particularly condemning the massive quantitative easing and low-interest-rate environments that he argues directly fueled the historic inflation spikes of 2021-2022. However, his 2026 nomination is highly contentious; he must reconcile his history as a strict inflation hawk with President Trump’s absolute demand for drastic interest rate cuts. His confirmation process is currently stalled in the Senate Banking Committee amidst the broader DOJ investigation into the sitting Fed Chair.