Trump’s Fed Chair Pick is Kevin Warsh and He Has Fans in CRE
By Andrew Coen January 30, 2026 9:38 am
reprints
Kevin Warsh, who was a Federal Reserve governor during the height of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, was nominated Friday by President Donald Trump to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair.
Trump’s pick of Warsh, a Wall Street veteran who was on the central bank’s board of governors from 2006 to 2011, follows a tumultuous yearlong stretch in which the Republican president has pummeled Powell for not lowering interest rates to his satisfaction. The move has given some in the commercial real estate industry comfort that the Fed’s independence will be maintained given Warsh’s past background with the central bank.
“We think Kevin Warsh will be an excellent Fed governor and, frankly, for the real estate industry, he will be helpful,” said Toby Cobb, co-founder and managing partner of CRE lender 3650 Capital. “He’s a great economist and will certainly guide our nation’s monetary policy with the best interest of our collected outcomes.”
Warsh was also a candidate to be Fed chair in late 2017 when Trump instead nominated Powell, whose second term as Fed chair expires May 15. Warsh’s nomination now must be approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
The former Fed governor called for lower interest rates in a July 2015 interview on CBNC’s “Squawk Box,”where he criticized the central bank’s restrictive policies under Powell. He was previously investment banker at Morgan Stanley from 1995 to 2002 and more recently has been a fellow at Stanford University’s conservative-leaning Hoover Institution.
The Warsh nomination announcement was made two days after the Fed maintained its benchmark interest rate at between 3.5 percent and 3.75 percent and indicated keeping borrowing levels steady after enacting three cuts in a row to close out 2025.
Trump has sought to reshape the Fed to meet his wish of lower interest rates, including an attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court signaled during Jan. 19 oral arguments that Cook’s job was likely safe.
Powell was also the subject of a U.S. Justice Department subpoena earlier this month connected to renovations to the Fed’s Washington, D.C., offices.
“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the selection of Warsh. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.
