Kevin Warsh, Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
Donald Trump's much-anticipated pick for the next Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, has a close family connection credited with sparking the president's long-running obsession with Greenland, according to a Friday report from Fortune.
Warsh is a financier who previously served on the Fed Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, with Fortune noting that he may be perceived as a more grounded and disciplined choice to lead the central bank than many expected from Trump. The president and his new nominee are said to differ on key economic philosophies, with Warsh said to favor policies that keep inflation in check above all. Trump has notably gone to war with current Chair Jerome Powell over his refusal to cut interest rates due to inflation worries.
Despite that difference, Fortune also noted a close family relation that might lead Trump to see his nominee as a potential loyalist. Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, granddaughter of Estée Lauder, who founded the skincare business that bears her name in 1946. Her father, billionaire Ron Lauder, has been a close friend and confidant of Trump's since the two met as undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Beyond their long-term friendship, Lauder is also credited with inspiring one of Trump's more baffling political obsessions: annexing Greenland for the U.S. Trump first began floating the idea late in his first term, and it reemerged more prominently than ever in his second. Trump escalated his demand to acquire the autonomous island territory from Denmark near the start of the year, refusing to rule out the use of military force to take it, while giving vague rationales about resources and national security.
Things came to a head at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the president claimed that some sort of framework for a deal had been reached to give the U.S. a greater presence in Greenland without annexing it outright. The escalation of the issue has been widely credited with fraying relations between the U.S. and its allies in Europe, who viewed Trump's demands as a threat to Danish sovereignty and the stability of NATO.
It was reportedly Lauder who first put the idea in Trump's head back in 2020, Fortune explained, citing a Guardian report that the businessman had acquired "commercial holdings in Greenland." In a New York Post op-ed from February 2025, Lauder argued that "Trump’s Greenland concept was never absurd — it was strategic."
"Per local reporting in the Arctic press, Lauder is a participant in an investor group called Greenland Development Partners, which backs water, energy, and infrastructure projects in the Arctic territory," Fortune's report detailed. "He has also reportedly invested in a small bottled-water company called Greenland Water Bank."