Trump nominates former Fox News commentator and Tea Party activist to seat on the Fed: 'He's a friend of mine'

'I've told my folks that's the man,' president says of Hermain Cain, who has little direct experience with monetary policy

Donald Trump plans to nominate a former Fox News commentator and Tea Party activist for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, where he will help set interest rates for the world's biggest economy.

Herman Cain, a 73-year-old former pizza chain executive who was described by Mr Trump as a "friend of mine", has little direct experience with monetary policy, but has previously expressed a similar outlook to the president's negative view of the Fed's interest rate hikes.

"I have recommended him highly for the Fed," Mr Trump said in a press conference on Thursday. "I've told my folks that's the man."

Mr Cain also runs a political fundraising group that has spent more than half its money supporting Mr Trump's re-election.

His America Fighting Back political action committee was created "by a group of President Trump's most committed supporters," according to its website. Its mission is to fight "disrespectful, dishonest and destructive news" about Mr Trump and bolster a movement of voters to fight for his re-election in 2020.

Mr Cain appears to be the only one of Mr Trump's Fed nominees so far to have actively raised funds for his benefit

Mr Trump has been a vocal and strident critic of the Fed's rate hikes under Jerome Powell, whom the president picked two years ago to chair America's central bank. Mr Trump's other Fed appointees have also supported Mr Powell's rate hikes, which the president has said hurt the economy.

This year the Fed has put rate hikes on hold, citing a slowing economy and risks from overseas. Mr Trump, meanwhile, has continued to rail against the bank, even as he has said he will nominate conservative commentator Stephen Moore, a proponent of rate cuts, for a second vacant seat on the Fed Board.

Asked if he is sending a signal to the Fed with the pair of nominations, Mr Trump said: "None whatsoever. He's a highly respected man. He's a friend of mine. He's somebody that gets it, and I hope everything goes well – but Herman Cain is a very good guy."

Board members have a vote on setting interest rates every time US central bankers meet, making them among America's most powerful officials for economic policy. At full strength there are 19 Fed policymakers, including 12 regional Fed bank presidents.

Mr Cain in February told Fox Business Network he believed deflation is a bigger worry, a view that suggests he is not inclined to support rate hikes aimed at keeping inflation in check.

Still, Mr Cain's policy views are not entirely clear: in the same February interview, he said he wanted to use wages as a factor in deciding monetary policy, which in the context of recently rising pay could suggest he would support rate hikes.

And the limited track record Mr Cain does have suggests a penchant for tighter, not looser, policy.

In the 1990s he served as a director at the Kansas City Fed, one of the 12 regional Fed banks that help process payments in the US banking system, and chaired the board from 1995 to 1996, when its president was the famously hawkish Thomas Hoenig.

Minutes of meetings during that period show the bank's directors were among those who repeatedly asked the Fed Board to raise rates when most of the boards of directors for the other Fed banks opposed any hike.

The concern, according to the minutes, was that continued economic growth could produce price pressures that needed to be contained by tighter policy.

Mr Cain made his fortune as chief executive of Godfather's Pizza before launching a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

He led opinion polls for a while during the Republican nominating contests, buoyed by his signature 9-9-9 tax proposal, which would have levied a flat 9 per cent corporate, income and sales tax.

For former president Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, Mr Cain was chosen to deliver a response on behalf of a California-based group supporting the Tea Party movement.

But his popularity slipped amid sexual harassment allegations from several women, which he denied as "completely false".

After the presidential bid, he became a longtime Fox News contributor until he left the channel last summer, and now regularly tweets in defence of Mr Trump and his policies while attacking the president opponents.

Mr Cain's likely nomination drew criticism from Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney.

"I doubt that will be a nomination," Mr Romney told Politico. "But if it were a nomination, you can bet the interest rates he would be pushing for ... If Herman Cain were on the Fed, you'd know the interest rate would soon be 9-9-9."

Additional reporting by Reuters