President-elect Donald Trump has expressed his desire for more control over Federal Reserve policy. However, he has indicated that he will not ask Fed Chair Jerome Powell to step down. Instead, Trump can shape monetary policy through appointments to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Trump may have to wait until 2026 before he can make changes to the Federal Reserve Board, where he would have an opportunity to appoint a new governor in January and a new chair in May of that year. This delay is due to the terms of the current members, as several positions on the Fed’s Board of Governors will open during Trump’s four years in office.
Presidents can appoint new members to the Federal Reserve Board once a governor’s 14-year term expires, subject to approval by the Senate. Two of the seven current members are nominees from Trump’s first term: Govs. Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller. The rest of the voters in the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee (FOMC) are a rotating slate of regional bank presidents, who are hired by the individual banks themselves and then approved by the Board of Governors.
“The biggest way the president could influence the Fed is through his appointments to the Federal Reserve Board,” Wells Fargo chief economist Jay Bryson said in a briefing before the election. “But if it were seen as a real crony or just a political sort of appointment, my sense is that there’s still enough institutional sort of senators there that may not vote to be able to do that.”
Gov. Adriana Kugler’s term expires in January 2026. Kugler completed the term originally held by Lael Brainard, who resigned from the Fed to serve as director of President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council. Since Kugler assumed an unfinished term, she could be reappointed and serve a full 14 years. Trump’s next opportunity to influence the Federal Reserve is also likely his most important: shifting the leadership. Chair and vice-chair terms are shorter than a member’s full governor term, so those positions often need appointing before a governor rolls off the board.
For example, Jerome Powell’s term as chair of the Federal Reserve ends in May 2026. However, his term on the board lasts through 2028.
It has been 76 years since a chairperson has finished their full term after their chairmanship expired.
“I would just say I will certainly serve to the end of my chair term, and that’s really all I’ve decided,” Powell said at an event in November in Dallas.
Trump will also have opportunities to affect policy when Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr’s four-year leadership term expires in July 2026 and Gov. Phillip Jefferson’s term as vice chair ends in September 2027.
Even if the positions’ current occupants stay on the board to complete their terms as governors, their successors in leadership could be influential in setting the direction of monetary policy and expressing it to the public.
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