Senate Approves Top Trump Adviser for Federal Reserve Board
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Stephen Miran, one of President Donald Trump‘s top economic advisers, to serve on the Federal Reserve’s governing board, in a largely partisan 48-47 vote.
The confirmation came just two days before the Fed is expected to vote on reducing its key interest rate.
Why It Matters
Miran was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last week, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposed. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote against Miran in the final Senate vote.
The Trump administration has embarked upon an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed’s seven-member governing board, which was designed to be independent of politics, as it presses the Fed to lower interest rates.
Trump has been highly critical of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates quickly and has attempted to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Also on Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that Cook can remain in her position.
What To Know
Miran’s appointment breaks with traditional Fed precedent in an important way: Unlike previous White House advisers who joined the Fed, including former Chair Ben Bernanke who served in President George W. Bush’s administration, Miran plans to maintain his role as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers while taking unpaid leave.
Bernanke and others left their White House jobs entirely when joining the Fed board. Miran has said if he is appointed to a longer term, he would resign from his White House position.
Miran in November proposed measures aimed at devaluing the U.S. dollar to boost exports, curb imports and narrow the trade deficit—a central goal of Trump’s economic agenda.
He also suggested that implementing tariffs could pressure key trade partners, including the European Union and Japan, into accepting a weaker dollar through what he dubbed a “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” referencing the 1985 Plaza Accord that successfully depreciated the dollar’s value.
In March 2024, while serving as fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, Miran also advocated for significant changes to the governance of the Fed. His proposals included making it easier for the president to remove members of the Fed’s governors board—an idea that could sharply erode the institution’s traditional independence from political influence.
Miran is filling an unexpired term that ends in January, replacing Adriana Kugler who unexpectedly stepped down from the board August 1.
What People Are Saying
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote that Miran “has no independence” and would be “nothing more than Donald Trump’s mouthpiece at the Fed.”
Miran, in a November 2024 policy paper co-authored with Dan Katz, who now holds a senior position at the Treasury Department, wrote: “The Federal Reserve’s record in recent years raises questions about whether it has been operating in line with the best practices of central bank independence…The Fed’s current governance has facilitated groupthink that has led to significant monetary-policy errors.”
Powell during a speech in late August said: “In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside, and risks to employment to the downside—a challenging situation. When our goals are in tension like this, our framework calls for us to balance both sides of our dual mandate. Our policy rate is now 100 basis points closer to neutral than it was a year ago, and the stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance. Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform September 5: “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should have lowered rates long ago. As usual, he’s ‘Too Late!'”
What Happens Next
The Fed will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, expected to begin lowering interest rates.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this article.
Update 9/15/2025, 10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include more information.