Trump Meets With Kevin Warsh About Fed Chairman Job -- Update

President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Kevin Warsh on Thursday to discuss his potential nomination as the next Federal Reserve chairman, a White House official said, signaling that the West Wing is moving ahead with a process that the president has said he would like to have completed by the end of the year.

Other names said to be in contention include current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, Stanford University economist John Taylor and John Allison, the former BB&T Bank chief executive, according to people familiar with the process. Mr. Allison was offered a position on the central bank's board of governors earlier in Mr. Trump's tenure, but turned it down, said people familiar with the offer.

Mr. Warsh is a former Fed governor and was a member of the president's Strategic and Policy Forum, a group of business leaders that disbanded in August in protest over what they said was Mr. Trump's failure to sufficiently condemn racism. He was also an economic adviser to 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who was considered the front-runner for the nomination before Mr. Trump's political rise surprised the political establishment.

Mr. Warsh, a veteran Republican economic policy maker, is married to Jane Lauder, granddaughter of cosmetic icon Estée Lauder. His father-in-law, businessman Ron Lauder, has been lobbying the White House to have the president name his son-in-law to the central bank's highest post, said people familiar with those conversations.

The search for a new Fed chairman, which Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in July he hoped to complete before the new year, has been largely informal until now. Several White House officials had described the short-list of candidates as existing only in Mr. Trump's own mind. But the president has started to interview candidates in recent days, one White House official said.

A White House spokeswoman didn't immediately return a request for comment. Mr. Warsh also didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has said he would be willing to reappoint Janet Yellen, whose term ends in February. She met with White House adviser Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, in July and had a 15-minute meeting with Mr. Trump in February. She said at a press conference last week she hasn't met with Mr. Trump since then.

Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2017 10:12 ET (14:12 GMT)