Milan, currently on the White House Economic Advisors Council, advocates a widespread overhaul of Fed governance.
US President Donald Trump has said he will nominate Stephen Milan, the US Federal Reserve’s top economic advisor, for four months.
The president announced his decision Thursday.
Milan, chair of the White House Economic Advisors Council, filled the seats vacant by Biden’s appointee Governor Adriana Coogler on Friday. Coogler is back as a tenured professor at Georgetown University.
This period expires on January 31, 2026 and is subject to approval by the Senate. Trump said the White House continues to search for someone to fill the seat on the 14-year Fed committee, which will open on February 1.
Milan, who served as economic advisor to the Treasury during the first Trump administration, advocated a widespread overhaul of Fed governance that shortens the terms of board members, places them under the president’s clear control and ends the “revolving door” that nationalizes the executive branch and the 12 Fed regional banks.
The appointment is Trump’s first opportunity to take more control over the Fed, one of the few still independent federal agencies. Trump has relentlessly criticised current chairman Jerome Powell for maintaining short-term interest rates without changing.
Milan is a leading advocate for Trump’s income tax cuts and tariff hikes, claiming that the combination will generate enough economic growth to reduce the budget deficit. He also lowers the risk that Trump’s tariffs will create higher inflation, a major source of concern for Powell.
Trump has failed to lower fees to Fed policymakers, including Powell, six fellow board members and 12 Fed bank presidents. Appointing Milan to the central bank gives the president a potentially more direct route to pursuing his desire for easy monetary policy, even in the role of a placeholder.
“Transloperist”
However, it is unclear how long Milan will have to try to develop his ideas at Fedan or vote for interest rates.
All Fed candidates are calling for a process that includes a confirmation of the Senate, a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, a vote from that panel, a vote that has advanced the nomination, and a series of floor votes in front of the Senate, where Democrats are slowing down the pace of approval of Trump’s appointment.
“Stephen Milan is Trump’s loyalty and one of the leading architects of the president’s chaotic tariff policy that hurt Americans’ wallets,” Elizabeth Warren, a top-ranked Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said of X after the announcement. “I have a lot of questions to him about whether he serves Americans or simply serving Donald Trump.”
The Senate will be on its summer break until September 2nd.
Before Milan’s term of office there will only be four policy setting meetings, including one from September 16-17.
Fed policymakers exert a policy rate of 4.5% at the current 4.25% at a July meeting, with Powell citing concerns that some rising inflation and Trump’s tariffs could be maintained that way as a reason to maintain policy restrictions.
This month, several central bankers raised concerns about the weakness of the labour market, and at least a few expressed renewed confidence that tariffs may not boost inflation as they previously thought. These views reflect the arguments made by two Fed governors last month who opposed the decision to put the policy on hold.
