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Washington
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he is nominating Stephen Miran, a key voice in the push for the administration’s tariff policy, to fill a vacancy at the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on a temporary basis.
Miran is currently the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. He’s widely credited with creating the intellectual backbone of Trump’s expansive tariff policy and has been a critical voice in support of Trump’s economic agenda since assuming his role.
Miran is filling a vacancy left by Adriana Kugler, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2023. Her term was slated to end in January, but last week she announced her resignation without citing a reason for her departure.
“I think that this seat is very important to the president,” Miran told CNBC on Wednesday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Miran’s arrival would likely bring another voice at the Fed in support of lower interest rates. At the Fed’s July meeting, policymakers voted to hold borrowing costs steady for a fifth consecutive time, but more than one Fed governor dissented on the decision, the first time that has happened in more than three decades.
It’s unclear if the Senate will move swiftly enough to have Miran on the board by the time Fed policymakers convene for their September 16-17 policy meeting.
“The confirmation process is going to take a couple of weeks, maybe as much as two months,” Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at Stifel, told CNN.
If Miran is confirmed, he’d be in a position to be elevated as Fed chair. He’d also be taking the same route that other former Fed chairs have taken, such as Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, who led the CEA before helming America’s central bank.
According to Fed rules, the chair can be chosen only among current Fed governors, and Powell, whom Trump has attacked for months, has refused to reveal if he’s staying on the board after his term as chair ends in May 2026. Powell’s term on the board runs through 2028, so he could theoretically choose to stay as a Fed governor.
Fed chairs typically step down from the central bank’s board entirely after their term ends.
A Harvard-trained economist and published academic, Miran has worked on fiscal and trade policy issues throughout his career, from his time in government to a stint at an investment firm.
He served in the Treasury Department during Trump’s first term and has also worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think thank, and as a senior strategist at Hudson Bay Capital, a global investment firm.
Miran became the subject of Wall Street fascination in the wake of his November 2024 paper outlining a tariff-centric approach to re-balancing US trade deficits.
He remains an ardent supporter of using tariffs to reshape global trade.
“They all predicted that our tariffs would incur massive retaliation from our trading partners, that they would try and punish American firms and American businesses and workers for it, and nothing could be farther from the truth,” Miran told Fox Business on Thursday hours before Trump announced his nomination. “It’s been a massive success for American workers.”
But he’s been less outspoken on the Fed, although he has said he supports lower interest rates.
“I think we have to acknowledge the president has had an absolutely fabulous track record on the subject” of interest rates, Miran told CNBC on Friday. “He’s gonna end up having been proven right again that lower rates are appropriate.”
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