On February 11, Trump nominated several top financial regulators.
Trump picked Jonathan McKernan, who resigned Monday from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, to lead the consumer bureau, replacing Biden appointee Rohit Chopra, an aggressive regulator whom he ousted last month. He also tapped Jonathan Gould, a Jones Day partner, to be the permanent comptroller of the currency, a bank regulator, and Brian Quintenz to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC], which is likely to have a strong hand in overseeing the cryptocurrency market.
Politico
John Hurley was chosen to serve as under secretary for terrorism and financial crimes. Brian Morrissey, who served under Steven Mnuchin during Trump’s first term, was selected to be the Treasury Department’s general counsel.
The nomination of Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) comes despite efforts, led by Russel Vought, to completely dismantle the agency. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is playing a supporting role in the gutting of the CFPB. In light of this behavior toward the agency, Senator Elizabeth Warren has suggested that the nomination of McKernan was irrelevant, as the fate of the agency depended on Trump’s and Musk’s willingness to “illegally” dismantle it.
Brian Quintenz’s nomination comes in light of Trump’s flip-flop on cryptocurrency. Whereas the President had once strongly denounced it, he has now embraced it. Quintenz was the head of policy for large venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptocurrency arm. The CFTC, which regulates trillions of dollars in trading in the American derivatives market, will have newfound authority over the $3 trillion crypto market.
