Trump Ally Miran Quits White House, Stays On as Fed Governor

Expected to Remain on the Board Until Warsh Is Confirmed

Fed Governor Stephen Miran, a former key economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has resigned from his concurrent post as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Bloomberg News and U.S. broadcaster CNBC reported on the 3rd (local time).

Governor Miran was appointed chairman of the CEA in January last year under the Trump administration. When he subsequently became a Fed governor in September of the same year, his CEA chairmanship was placed on unpaid leave. He was appointed to fill the remainder of the term of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who abruptly resigned in August last year. At the time, he said that once the remainder of Kugler's term, which was set to expire on January 31 this year, ended, he planned to return to his post as CEA chairman. He added that if his term as Fed governor were extended, he would step down from the CEA chairmanship.

Fed Governor Stephen Miran. Reuters Yonhap News

Although Governor Miran's term has now expired, he can continue to perform his duties as a Fed governor until his successor is confirmed by the Senate and takes office.

According to Bloomberg, Governor Miran wrote in a letter to President Trump that "when I took unpaid leave from the CEA to move to the Fed, I promised the Senate that if I remained on the Fed Board after January, I would formally depart from the CEA," adding, "I believe it is important both to keep my word and to continue serving in the role at the Fed to which the President and the Senate have appointed me."

White House spokesperson Kushi Desai said that "Stephen Miran has submitted his resignation to the CEA, as he promised the Senate when he was confirmed as a Fed governor," adding, "Until he went on leave last September, Miran was a tremendous asset to the White House, providing outstanding insight and strongly supporting the President's policies, and he established himself as a key member of the Trump administration's economic team."

Bloomberg reported that on the same day, 11 Democratic senators on the Senate Banking Committee sent Governor Miran a letter urging him to step down from the Fed. Since his appointment, Democratic lawmakers have argued that the fact that he was on unpaid leave from his White House position could undermine the Fed's independence.

This resignation appears to both address concerns over his holding the CEA chairmanship and a Fed governorship at the same time, and pave the way for former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, who has been nominated as the next Fed chair, to take over the seat. The current chair, Jerome Powell, serves as chair until May this year, while his separate term as a Fed governor runs until January 2028.

President Trump is expected to appoint former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, whom he nominated as the next Fed chair on January 30, to the Fed governor seat vacated by Miran. However, the Senate confirmation process is expected to be protracted. During this period, the administration is expected to avoid a policy vacuum while bolstering the case for interest rate cuts.

According to the Financial Times (FT) on the same day, 11 Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee sent a letter to Committee Chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina, requesting that the confirmation process for former Governor Warsh be postponed until investigations into current Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Governor Lisa Cook are concluded. On the 30th of last month, Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also said he would oppose Warsh's nomination in protest over the investigation involving Chair Powell. The Senate Banking Committee is composed of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats, and if Senator Tillis defects, the nomination will not clear the committee hurdle.

Governor Miran has been a strong proponent of aggressive interest rate cuts. He has consistently dissented in four meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) he has attended as a Fed governor. Most recently, at last month's FOMC meeting, he voted against the decision to keep the federal funds rate unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, arguing instead for a 0.25 percentage point cut.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.