Kevin Warsh got his break as dusk was beginning to set in a frigid Washington on Thursday afternoon.
Donald Trump had summoned Warsh to the White House for a final make-or-break meeting. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent would also be there. Months of twists and turns in the cut-throat race for chair of the Federal Reserve were ending.
Warsh had been spurned for the Fed chair job nearly a decade earlier. Now he had just a short window for the most important meeting of his life. In a day peppered with a televised cabinet meeting, an announcement on fighting drug addiction and a film screening, Trump had carved out just enough time to speak with Warsh.