Trump reportedly set to nominate Herman Cain to Fed board

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate, for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. media reported Thursday.

The president is set to announce his nomination very soon, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying. Cain, who served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the 1990s, ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

U.S. news and information website Axios reported earlier Thursday that Trump was expected to announce his selection of Cain as soon as a background check was completed.

Last year, Cain co-founded a pro-Trump political action committee, America Fighting Back PAC. PAC, political action committee, is an organization that raises and distributes campaign contribution to candidates seeking political office.

There are currently two vacancies on the seven-member Fed board, and nominations have to be approved by the Senate.

In March, Trump has offered a Fed board seat to his former campaign adviser Stephen Moore, who recently published an opinion piece he co-authored on the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the Fed's tight-money policy is a threat to U.S. economic growth, which echoed the view of the president.

Moore is a visiting fellow for Project for Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation. He created the Club for Growth, which helps elect conservative members of the Congress.

The Fed approved four interest rate hikes in 2018, continuing a move toward policy normalization that began in 2015. Trump has repeatedly exerted pressure on the Fed to hold off on rate hikes, and has reportedly considered firing the central bank chief a few months ago.

In March, the Fed left interest rates unchanged after concluding a two-day policy meeting, and again pledged to be patient with future rate hikes. It also said it intends to end the runoff of its balance sheet at the end of September.