Trump meets Warsh as part of Fed chair search

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump met with former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh as part of the process of interviewing candidates for the Fed’s top job.

A White House official said Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Warsh on Thursday. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss private White House meetings.

Trump has said previously that he is considering renominating Fed Chair Janet Yellen when her term ends in February. But he has said he is also looking at other candidates including Gary Cohn, the head of Trump’s National Economic Council.

Warsh, who served on the Fed’s board from 2006 to 2011, was a key adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke during the 2008 financial crisis.

Warsh is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Trump told reporters earlier this month that he liked and respected Yellen but had not made a decision on the Fed job. While Trump was harshly critical during the campaign of Yellen’s performance, he has made only favorable comments about her since the election.

Yellen’s term as chair expires Feb. 3. In an interview this summer, Trump mentioned Cohn as another candidate for the Fed job. But Cohn’s prospects appeared to dim after he was publicly critical in August of Trump’s response to the protest violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Cohn and Mnuchin have taken the lead in crafting the administration’s tax plan.