Trump Is Making Strides in His Takeover of the Fed

White House official Miran would consider keeping job while serving on Fed board in an unprecedented move

- Nick Timiraos

President Trump's sprint to take control of the Federal Reserve played out in a striking split-screen fashion on Thursday, just two weeks before the central bank's next policy meeting.

On Capitol Hill, Trump's pick to fill a vacant seat on the Fed's board faced questioning over an unprecedented plan to keep a White House job while serving on the Fed. A few blocks away, government lawyers defended in federal court the first-ever attempted presidential firing of a sitting Fed governor.

Both Stephen Miran's expected confirmation and Fed governor Lisa Cook's legal challenge are racing toward the Fed's Sept. 16-17 meeting, where policymakers are expected to consider cutting interest rates—a move Trump has repeatedly demanded.

Trump last month tapped Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a seat that became vacant on the Fed's board when Adriana Kugler, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, resigned unexpectedly.

On Thursday, Miran repeatedly pledged to act independently as a Fed governor. Democrats argued those promises were meaningless after their questioning revealed an unusual proposal where Miran wouldn't resign from his White House job, but rather would take unpaid leave from the CEA so that he could return later.

The Fed seat Miran would fill has a term that runs through January.

Miran said that if he were to be nominated to a term that is longer than "just a handful of months, I would absolutely resign."