President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he would nominate Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to fill the open governor role at the Federal Reserve until the term expires in January. The position, which comes with a spot on the interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, comes after Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler resigned early. Kugler's 14-year term did not expire until January, but she was set to leave the post on Friday, saying she would return to Georgetown University as a professor this fall. "It is my Great Honor to announce that I have chosen Dr. Stephen Miran, current Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, to serve in the just vacated seat on the Federal Reserve Board until January 31, 2026," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "In the meantime, we will continue to search for a permanent replacement." The U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar's strength against a basket of foreign currencies, immediately erased its gain for the day and turned lower on the announcement. Kugler, a Biden appointee, had voted recently along with the majority of the committee to keep interest rates unchanged amid uncertainty from Trump's global tariffs and inflation that has remained above the Fed's 2% target and ticked up slightly in recent months. Miran would become the third Trump nominee to join the Federal Reserve, after Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman. Although Trump has attacked Powell on a near-constant basis since even before returning to office in January and has urged him to lower interest rates through insult-laden social media posts, Bowman's overall agenda as vice chair more closely aligns with the Trump administration. Powell does not have the power to unilaterally raise or lower interest rates. Only when a majority of the 12-member rate-setting committee votes to do so are rates changed. Miran is a key architect of Trump's tariff war, after writing a paper in November called "A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System," which argued that trade deficits with other countries disadvantaged U.S. manufacturing and allowed China to accelerate its exports to the rest of the world. His paper floated the idea of "sweeping tariffs" to narrow trade gaps, but admitted that reigniting global demand for U.S. exports could involve significant economic and market volatility. And in a suggestion that could raise questions about his independence as a potential Federal Reserve governor, Miran wrote that balancing trade deficits would require a weakening of the U.S. dollar through "gradualism or coordination with allies or the Federal Reserve." As Trump hascontinued to bash the Fed, which operates independently of the White House,former Fed chairs have been quick to warnthat Fed policies made for political purposes tend to result in bad economic outcomes. "He has been with me from the beginning of my Second Term, and his expertise in the World of Economics is unparalleled — He will do an outstanding job," Trump said on social media. In 2024, Miranco-authored a paperthat was highly critical of the Federal Reserve that he is now set to join. "The Federal Reserve's record in recent years raises questions about whether it has been operating in line with the best practices of central bank independence," Miran wrote. In the paper last year, Miran stated many of Trump's current lines of attack against the central bank. "Important benefits flow from a central bank that can conduct monetary policy free from short-term political pressures—and that to enable the Fed to do so, its governance should be overhauled," he said. Fears have been raised and markets roiled amid worries that Trump could fire Powell, although he does not have the power to do so except "for cause." The administration seized on the billion-dollar renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters in recent weeks, which some viewed as a possible way to fire Powell. However, Powell has firmly maintained that there has been no impropriety associated with the cost overruns of the renovation project. Bowman, a former Kansas banking regulator, was confirmed by the Senate as vice chair in June. She has spent her tenure so far scaling back regulations that big banks and financial institutions have called onerous and costly. Bowman has said the previous regulatory approach was too complex and has called for changing key rules about how much capital big banks need to keep on their balance sheets in case of a financial crisis. Both Powell and Bowman have strongly maintained that the independence of the Fed is important for the future of the institution and the smooth operation of financial markets and the nation's economy. "It's very important, and I've said this a number of times in the past, that we maintain our independence with respect to monetary policy. I think that's very clear," Bowman told CNBC on June 22. Speaking at the most recent Fed news conference, Powell said: "I think that having an independent central bank has been an institutional arrangement that has served the public well. And, as long as it serves the public well, it should continue and be respected."