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Christopher Phelan
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers — Executive Office of the President
Signature issue: The administration's economic analysis — the CEA's numbers behind its economic claims
Scoreboard tally
Wins, pending items, and setbacks on this profile are tallied from published scoreboard entries — never set by hand. The tally begins with the first reviewed weekly entry that scores this official.
Role status — October 2026: Phelan is the incumbent Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers — the 33rd person to hold the job. The timeline, as pinned by Audit Sprint A from Senate records: nominated April 21, 2026; a Banking Committee hearing on June 25; advanced July 23; serving as Vice Chair from July 6 to August 7 while Pierre Yared acted as chair; confirmed August 7, 2026 by 51–47 (Record Vote 225, nomination PN931-6); assumed office August 10, 2026.
His seat’s chain is part of this chronicle’s churn record. The CEA chair was Stephen Miran’s: Miran moved from the CEA to a Federal Reserve governorship in September 2025, resigned the CEA chair in February 2026, then resigned from the Fed in May 2026 to clear the seat for Chair Kevin Warsh, and rejoined Hudson Bay Capital in June 2026 — fully out of the administration. Yared’s acting interval and Phelan’s own vice-chair months followed before the August confirmation made the seat permanent again. No sourced criticism of Phelan was carried in this research pass, and none is asserted here.
Verified channels:
- None verified. No X, Truth Social, or YouTube account for Phelan meets this chronicle’s verification bar in research, and none is published here
Video sources: QUIET. The public video record in research is his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing (June 25, 2026), carried by Senate and C-SPAN channels. The CEA’s output is analytical and text-first; no verified personal video channel exists.
Why he matters to this chronicle: The CEA is the White House’s own economics shop — the office whose analysis stands behind the administration’s economic claims. With the chair vacant, acting, or in transition for most of 2026, Phelan’s confirmation restored a permanent economic-analysis seat just as the midterm economic argument peaks; his profile is where CEA reports and forecasts will be scored against outcomes.
Sources (Oct 2026): Audit Sprint A (2026-10-18), from senate.gov floor activity (PN931-6, Record Vote 225), on Phelan’s nomination, hearing, vice-chair interval, confirmation (Aug 7, 2026, 51–47), and assumption of office (Aug 10, 2026); Research Cluster C (2026-10-18) on the Miran chain and Yared’s acting interval.