Donald Trump taps CEA Chair Stephen Miran for seat on Fed board

United States (US) President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would be selecting Stephen Miran, the current Chair of the US Council of Economic Advisors, to replace recently resigned Federal Reserve (Fed) Board of Governors (BoG) member Adriana Kugler.

Key Highlights

Stephen Miran will be replacing Adriana Kugler as a voting member of the Fed's Board on an interim basis until January 31, 2026. Trump is continuing his trend of appointing team members to multiple roles: Moran already serves as the Chair of the US CEA, a position he was nominated to by Trump at the beginning of his second term.

Stephen Miran is a dyed-in-the-wool protectionist and a strong proponent of using steep tariffs to manipulate trade deficits, specifically to weaken the US Dollar (USD) in an effort to increase the viability of increasing US domestic production and limiting international trade. Moran's notable career stints in major positions include a stint as an economic policy advisor at the US Treasury Department and as a senior strategist at distressed-debt predator Hudson Bay Capital Management. Both positions were brief and lasted less than a year.

Stephen Miran's publicly available policy research is broadly considered a foundational blueprint for the "Mar-a-Lago Accord", an economic and trade policy proposal that seeks to drastically undermine the value and credibility of the Greenback to forcefully reshore US manufacturing at the expense of the broader services economy.

The Trump administration's bizarre decision to include trade deficits in calculations for tariffs is likewise considered to be the brainchild of Miran. As a voting member of the Fed Board, Miran will have a direct say in when, and by how much, the Federal Reserve should move interest rates in its upcoming interest rate decisions. The Fed's next interest rate call is slated for September 17.

Market impact

The US Dollar Index (DXY) got knocked sharply lower following the White House's announcement of Miran's selection, falling from the 98.40 region and backsliding to the 98.00 area. The US Dollar basket has fallen for three of the last five sessions, declining 2.3% from a nine-week high of 100.26.

US Dollar Index 5-minute chart