Donald Trump has named four people for two seats on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. None of them have made it through the Senate, raising doubts about the president’s central bank acumen and the White House’s vetting process for nominees.
Conservative economic pundit Stephen Moore on Thursday was the latest Fed candidate to flame out, following businessman Herman Cain and economists Nellie Liang and Marvin Goodfriend.
Moore’s exit, following weeks of questions about his qualifications and criticism of his past writings and public remarks, renewed frustrations among Republicans and the president’s own advisers that the White House’s nomination process is light on background research and driven largely by Trump’s whims. Trump, meanwhile, failed in trying to place political loyalists on the Fed’s board and may be forced to consider more conventional candidates.
Moore’s withdrawal followed a familiar pattern. The president tweeted that the candidate himself made the decision, just hours after Moore insisted to a roomful of Bloomberg News journalists that he was “all in” and that he’d only withdraw if Trump decided to “throw in the towel.”
A similar fate befell Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza Inc. chief executive and Republican presidential candidate, earlier this month. Liang and Goodfriend were at least formally nominated for the Fed board last year. Goodfriend wasn’t renominated this year and Liang withdrew in the face of tepid enthusiasm for them among Senate Republicans and Trump himself.
‘Right Decision’
“They came to the right decision,” Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said of the withdrawal of Moore and Cain. Thune had publicly questioned whether Moore could win confirmation, and suggested the White House consult with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in advance of floating further names “particularly for big positions like this.”
Trump has succeeded in filling three posts on the Fed board and managed to elevate Jerome Powell, already a governor, to the chairmanship -- though the president rapidly soured on him following the central bank’s 2018 interest rate increases. The president also won Senate confirmation of Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida and the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, Randal Quarles.
All were considered conventional, non-controversial choices.
Ian Katz, an analyst at Capital Alpha Partners LLC, a Washington policy research firm, said he expected the White House to return to similar candidates.