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Sources claim that Trump’s team is considering Robinhood’s chief legal officer Dan Gallagher as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s replacement. However, it is possible Gensler might stay on unless he resigns.
According to a Reuters report on Nov. 7, multiple sources with insider knowledge say that Trump’s transition team is considering pro-crypto lawyer Dan Gallagher for the position of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, replacing Gary Gensler.
Gallagher previously served as a Republican SEC commissioner back in 2011 until 2015. He is currently the chief legal and compliance officer retail brokerage Robinhood. He is a popular pick among crypto execs as he has advocated for classifying cryptocurrencies as a separate asset class rather than as securities.
During his campaign for president, Donald Trump vowed to fire Gensler on his first day as president. Gensler is known for his antagonistic stance towards the crypto industry, claiming that the sector is rife with speculators.
The SEC has also prosecuted several crypto companies and executives, with ongoing lawsuits involving Coinbase, Binance and Ripple to name a few.
In response to the rumors regarding the agency’s new head, Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters that Trump will decide who will serve in his new administration soon.
“Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” said Leavitt.
However before the presidential election, 28 Gary Gensler said that he intends to stay on and continue his work at the SEC until “the ref calls the whistle.” Gensler’s term ends in 2026, after starting in 2021 under the Biden administration.
Historically, the previous SEC heads stepped down from their posts once there is a change in the White House administration. Therefore, it is likely that Gensler will resign out of his own volition once the Republican administration takes over the White House.
Though, it is important to note that US Presidents themselves cannot fire an executive agency commissioner without cause, a rule that was enacted in the 1930s to prevent then-president Franklin Roosevelt from reshuffling the Federal Trade Commission.
The same case applies to other agency figureheads like the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump has threatened to fire Powell on multiple occasions during his first presidential term.
However, CNN reported that a senior adviser of Trump admitted that Powell could very well stay on for the remainder of his term, which ends in May 2026. In July, Trump told Bloomberg that he would keep Powell as head of the Fed until the end of his term.
When asked whether he was going to lose his job in the shift to the Trump administration, Powell replied with a terse no. He claimed that Trump does not have the legal power to fire him.
“Not permitted under law,” said Powell.
Powell was appointed as the Federal Reserve Chairman by Trump in 2018. He previously served on the central bank’s governing board and as a private equity executive.
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