Trump considers Warsh for Treasury Secretary and later Fed chairman, WSJ reports

(Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump floated the idea of appointing Kevin Warsh as Treasury Secretary on the understanding that he could later be Federal Reserve chair, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The potential arrangement was discussed between Trump and Warsh, a former investment banker who served on the Federal Reserve Board, at Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat on Wednesday, the report added.

Trump is also thinking about appointing Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to lead the White House National Economic Council before he could be nominated to replace Warsh at the Treasury, the report added.

No announcement has been made by Trump.

The Wall Street Journal cautioned that Trump could still pick someone else for the role.

Marc Rowan, who co-founded Apollo Global Management, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump's U.S. trade representative for essentially the then-president's entire term, are also considered to be in the running for the Treasury role.

Trump was still weighing how he would approach filling the Fed leadership role, the Journal said, and he would likely not make a decision until closer to the end of current Chair Jerome Powell's four-year term in May 2026.

Warsh could be seen as an unusual choice for Trump, who wants to impose steep tariffs to curb imports and who has said presidents ought to have some say in Fed policymaking. Warsh in the past has been openly critical of tariffs and has also been a staunch advocate of the Fed's independence.

In a 2010 speech delivered while he was a Fed governor, Warsh said the Fed's greatest asset was its "hard-earned credibility," which required "fierce independence from the whims of Washington and the wants of Wall Street."

"This fierce independence is needed, perhaps now more than ever," he said at the time.

Bessent, for one, has floated the notion of appointing a successor to Powell well before his term as chair expires, allowing that individual to act as a sort of "shadow chair" who would supersede Powell's authority. He has since distanced himself from that idea, but the subject of Fed independence during Trump's coming term remains a point of high interest among economists and investors.

While Powell's term as chair expires in May 2026, his seat on the Fed board extends until January 2028. However, no Fed leader in more than 70 years has remained at the central bank after their term at the helm expired. The last to do so was Marriner Eccles, who stayed on for about three years after stepping down as chair in 1948.

Barring any resignations among the current seven board members, the first vacancy at the Fed that will be available for Trump to fill will occur when Governor Adriana Kugler's term expires in January 2026.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Lincoln Feast and Chizu Nomiyama)