Another ‘central casting’ central banker: Trump’s decide of Kevin Warsh matches a well-established sample

Announcing Kevin Warsh Friday morning as his pick to replace Jerome Powell when Powell’s term expires in May, Trump praised the former Fed governor not just for his résumé, but for his fit. 

“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump wrote on Truth Social as he announced Warsh’s appointment. “On top of everything else, he is central casting, and he will never let you down.”

That phrase, “central casting,” has become vintage Trump over the past decade. The former reality-star-turned-president has long viewed senior roles not merely as technocratic jobs, but as parts to be played on the national stage.

Warsh has been down this road before. He was a finalist for the job in 2017, competing with current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, before ultimately being passed over. At that time, Trump reportedly fixated less on Warsh’s views on interest rates than on his youth and appearance. According to Axios, Warsh came to the White House in 2019 to discuss policy, only for Trump to pivot quickly to his looks. “You’re a really handsome guy,” Trump told him, before asking his age. When Warsh told him, Trump responded: “Well, you look good for 47.” (Warsh did not immediately respond to requests for comment.) 

At the time, Warsh may simply have seemed too baby-faced to play the role Trump had in mind: a central banker capable of steering interest-rate decisions on national television and fielding market-moving questions from reporters. Now, at 55, Warsh seems to have aged into the part. 

Previous reporting suggested that, in 2018, Trump had privately questioned whether former Fed Chair Janet Yellen—who stands at 5-foot-3—was “tall enough” for the role, a claim Trump later disputed. She was a contrast from an archetypal central banker such as Paul Volcker, the towering Fed chair who crushed inflation in the early 1980s and stood 6-foot-7—an intimidating physical presence that a Financial Times commentator once said could “instill fear in financiers” before he spoke. 

Trump, however, has a particular vocabulary for this way of thinking. He routinely describes favored figures as “central casting,” using it as an adjective—“That’s so central casting” or “Is he central casting or what?” For those unfamiliar with the Hollywood lore that created this phrase, here’s what Trump is talking about, and how it shapes his thinking.

What is central casting?

The phrase isn’t Trump’s invention but a Hollywood term, rooted in the Central Casting Corp., which for a century has supplied the industry background actors who look right for the role before they speak—counting Brad Pitt and John Wayne among their alums. In the late 20th century, the term was shorthand for a platonic ideal, a request fulfilled for a director of a film or television show who needed a certain “type.” This is also where the phrase “typecasting” comes from.

It’s a habitual phrase Trump has applied broadly, from foreign leaders’ aides to Supreme Court justices, military generals, governors, and his own vice president. Over the years, he has described everyone from Chinese officials and Israeli military commanders as “central casting.” For his own cabinet and Supreme Court choices, he has often associated it with a certain type of square-jawed white man: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Mike Pence, and the men Trump called “my generals,” James Mattis and John Kelly.

With much concern over the erosion of central bank independence, Trump’s central-casting-style preferences for appointments may not be reassuring, as central bankers must rely on a credibility that’s not skin-deep. Then again, Jerome Powell himself was once considered by Trump to be of that “type,” and now Trump can’t seem to wait for the time when he’s replaced by the next central-casting central banker.