In August, amid President Donald Trump’s conflict with the Federal Reserve, high Trump advisers started receiving a wave of calls and textual content messages from an sudden supply insisting he may remedy the administration’s drawback, urgent to be appointed to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, one of the influential financial posts in authorities.
The push was from James Fishback, a 30-year-old funding agency CEO and political newcomer who pitched himself to Trump advisers as a fierce supporter of the president who ought to substitute Adriana Kugler, who had introduced she would step down as a Federal Reserve governor, claiming he would function Trump’s “bulldog” on the Federal Reserve Board, sources instructed ABC Information.
Fishback privately reached out to James Blair, the White Home deputy chief of employees, urging him to contemplate him for the function whereas additionally contacting influential outdoors Trump advisers, like Alex Bruesewitz, who Fishback requested if he may vouch for him to the president himself.
“I would be honored if you happen to can put in a superb phrase with the boss for me,” Fishback texted him, in keeping with Bruesewitz.
Fishback was persistent, lobbying for the function every day, the sources mentioned, and circulated a memo outlining why he ought to be chosen, which touted his loyalty to Trump and his guarantees to vote for big rate of interest cuts, and included an inventory of his cable-news appearances, in keeping with a memo reviewed by ABC Information.
“I might be honored to function a bulldog fighter for the President and his motion on the Federal Reserve for five months. I might defend his agenda on the Fed Board (which suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome),” the memo reads.
After an area Florida social media account posted an unattributed declare on X that Fishback was “being floated” for the Fed function, hypothesis sparked on-line and on cable information networks that he was in truth below critical consideration.
Azoria CEO James Fishback is seen in a 2025 photograph.
Azoria
Amid the push, Fishback even referred to as President Donald Trump instantly and pitched himself for the function, sources instructed ABC Information.
However in actuality, Fishback was by no means into consideration for the Fed place, a number of sources inform ABC Information, and senior White Home officers in the end concluded that Fishback had created your complete information cycle. President Trump would go on to call Stephen Miran, chair of the Council of Financial Advisors, to the place.
‘Who the hell is that this man?’
Now, months after his unsuccessful push to have Trump identify him to the Fed board, Fishback is floating plans to launch an rebel marketing campaign to take down Rep. Byron Donalds, President Trump’s endorsed candidate for Florida governor. And with Fishback scheduled to make an announcement on Monday, he has spent the final two weeks unloading relentless assaults on Donalds, whereas even taking photographs at President Trump and entering into social media spats with the identical Trump advisers he had been lobbying a number of brief months in the past.
When requested if being handed over for the fed function performed any function in his determination to run, Fishback instructed ABC Information, “By no means.”
“I referred to as President Trump in early August and supplied to serve out the ultimate months of the remaining time period of a newly vacated seat on the Federal Reserve. I used to be glad to see that he later picked my buddy Steve Miran for the function, who I’ve identified for years,” Fishback instructed ABC Information. “The D.C. institution talking anonymously to the press to attempt to harm my marketing campaign earlier than even I’ve even declared tells you ways a lot they worry my run for Florida governor.”
“The one factor that has to do with this, me entering into this race, is Byron Donalds being an utter America final failure,” he mentioned.
Fishback floating a possible run is the newest wrench thrown into subsequent yr’s Republican major for Florida governor, a race that is already swirling with intrigue. Whereas Trump has endorsed Donalds, sources inform ABC Information that Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s term-limited and can’t run for reelection, remains to be looking for a possible inheritor to again within the major to proceed what he views as his legacy within the state.
Rumors have circulated about Lt. Gov. Jay Collins probably leaping into the race, and earlier this yr sources instructed ABC Information that DeSantis’ spouse, Casey, was critically contemplating a 2026 run for Florida governor to succeed her husband. At one level, former congressman-turned-OAN host Matt Gaetz was additionally weighing a gubernatorial run subsequent yr, sources mentioned, however after a damning House Ethics Committee report launched earlier this yr, hypothesis round his candidacy has since died down.
Rep. Byron Donalds speaks throughout CPAC Latino 2025 at Seminole Arduous Rock Resort & On line casino in Hollywood, Florida, June 28, 2025.
Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos
When requested if he had dominated out operating subsequent yr, Gaetz would not say, as a substitute telling ABC Information, “Proper now I am having a blast rising ‘The Matt Gaetz Present’ on One America Information!”
Fishback’s effort to safe a spot on the Federal Reserve Board was only one in a rising listing of episodes that sources mentioned have puzzled some within the MAGA world since his profile has risen over the course of the yr.
“Lots of people are simply asking themselves, who the hell is that this man?” one Trump adviser instructed ABC Information.
“Clearly, Byron Donalds and his D.C. institution backers see me as a risk,” Fishback instructed ABC Information. “They need to. Floridians are sick and uninterested in the within baseball. They need a governor who will protect Ron DeSantis’ legacy and make it simpler to get an incredible paying job, purchase a house, increase a household, and retire with dignity.”
“Voters need and deserve a frontrunner who will battle for Florida — not promote us out to multinational companies that wish to develop each inch of our state, construct AI knowledge facilities that threaten our water provide and lift our electrical payments, and substitute American staff with H-1B servants,” Fishback mentioned.
Fishback’s lobbying for a Fed Board seat was not the primary time he had privately sought help from Trump world. Weeks earlier this yr, he started reaching out to figures in Trump’s orbit, on the lookout for investments in his newly launched Azoria exchange-traded fund.
Alex Bruesewitz, a senior adviser to By no means Give up PAC and influential MAGA determine who’s backing Donalds’ run for governor, instructed ABC Information that Fishback approached him earlier this yr and the 2 met for espresso in West Palm Seashore, the place Fishback boasted of quite a few political and monetary ventures he claimed have been underway.
Quickly after, Fishback despatched paperwork for Bruesewitz to wire $25,000 into the Azoria fund and promising substantial returns.
In an e-mail from late July obtained by ABC Information, Fishback thanked Bruesewitz for agreeing to make the funding.
“He was speaking about how he’ll make me a lot cash in return,” Bruesewitz instructed ABC Information, including that the paperwork included lofty projections and plans for added funds, and highlighted Fishback’s social media attain.
James Fishback, CEO of funding agency/asset supervisor Azoria, speaks on the Marshall Scholar Heart, Oct 6, 2025, in Tampa, Fla.
Douglas R Clifford/Tampa Bay Occasions/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Bruesewitz mentioned that earlier than wiring the cash, he turned uneasy over the proposal, having solely just lately met Fishback, and confirmed the supplies to a buddy who manages a number of publicly traded funds. The buddy warned that the proposal appeared doubtful, Bruesewitz mentioned.
In response, Fishback instructed ABC Information that Bruesewitz has each purpose to manufacture smears about him and push them to the media given that he’s supporting the Trump-backed candidate in Florida’s gubernatorial major.
Bruesewitz in the end declined to spend money on Azoria. In October, Trustees moved to liquidate and terminate Azoria’s ETFs, the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF (SPXM.Z), and the Azoria Tesla Convexity ETF (TSLV.Z), which the board mentioned got here after “contemplating all related info, together with with out limitation current litigation involving a principal of” Azoria.
Fishback referred to as the transfer one other instance of “de-banking of conservatives,” arguing that it got here after he vowed to “cease investing in firms that use the H-1B program to fireplace Individuals.”
‘DOGE adviser?‘
Fishback had a breakthrough second on the conservative media scene earlier this yr, driving the wave of Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, when he started showing on CNN, Fox Information, and Newsmax, usually described as a “DOGE adviser,” weighing in on work being finished by the group. His platform grew much more when in a put up on X in February, he pitched Musk the concept of DOGE dividend checks that will pay Individuals cash primarily based on authorities financial savings.
After the concept caught fireplace on-line, Musk mentioned he would deliver the idea to Trump — who later endorsed the concept and has since floated the same idea round sending Individuals $2,000 “tariff dividend” checks.
The success of Fishback’s viral “DOGE dividend” thought led to extra media appearances by Fishback, elevating his profile additional.
In an interview with conservative information outlet Breitbart in July, Fishback was requested, “Inform us about your time at DOGE. What was it like, and when did you allow?”
Fishback replied, “I began engaged on the DOGE motion firstly with Vivek (Ramaswamy, an preliminary DOGE co-lead), and I left on the finish of Might or early June when Elon had this massive fallout with the president that he misplaced, and it’s as a result of Elon didn’t ship in the way in which I believed he would have.”
Nevertheless, though he made appearances throughout cable information as a “DOGE adviser” and claimed he was one on social media, a number of senior officers who labored for DOGE, each earlier than its official institution in January and after, instructed ABC Information that Fishback by no means held any official or casual function advising Musk or the DOGE group, and that he was inflating his connection to the group.
Elon Musk throughout a information convention within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, Might 30, 2025.
Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
“The concept he had something to do with DOGE is laughable,” a former senior DOGE official instructed ABC Information.
Fishback disputed claims that he misrepresented his connections to Musk and DOGE to spice up his profile. He acknowledged he was by no means a paid DOGE worker, arguing that his involvement got here from drafting the so-called “DOGE dividend,” the proposal he independently pitched to Musk over X, and dismissed DOGE officers’ accusations that he overstated his function as a dispute over “semantics.”
In July, a former senior DOGE adviser and spokesperson for Elon Musk responded to a put up from Fishback on X the place he mentioned he “suggested DOGE.”
“You did not advise DOGE,” Katie Miller wrote. Fishback responded to Miller’s put up by writing to Musk, “Cease making your staff lie for you.”
Fishback has confronted allegations of misrepresenting his credentials earlier than. A lawsuit filed earlier this yr by his former employer, Greenlight Capital and DME Capital Administration, alleged that he misrepresented his place on the firm so as to achieve credibility for his personal fund, Azoria Companions, by falsely claiming he was the corporate’s “Head of Macro.”
“Fishback falsely represented himself to business contacts and at business occasions as Greenlight’s ‘Head of Macro’ and the particular person operating macro investing at Greenlight and liable for the efficiency of its macro funding portfolio. None of this stuff have been true,” the lawsuit alleges.
Fishback’s former employer claims he repeatedly instructed business contacts, convention audiences, podcast hosts, and social media followers that he held the “Head of Macro” function. Nevertheless, the corporate says that Fishback was employed as a analysis analyst and was by no means given any such function as a result of, because the lawsuit states, “the title ‘Head of Macro’ has by no means existed at Greenlight.”
“Fishback apparently thought this would supply him and Azoria with extra credibility and assist appeal to traders at Greenlight’s expense,” the lawsuit claims.
In September, Fishback admitted to sharing unauthorized, confidential firm info with people outdoors the agency, in keeping with a joint courtroom submitting from the corporate and Fishback. Fishback agreed to return and completely delete any confidential info that remained in his possession, the courtroom submitting mentioned.
The courtroom submitting omitted a number of the agency’s allegations, together with alleged misstatements about Fishback’s place on the agency, which Fishback maintains “have been launched after which eradicated from Greenlight’s lawsuit.”
“The one declare of Greenlight’s that superior was a vanilla ‘breach of contract’ declare,” Fishback instructed ABC Information in an announcement, and pointed ABC Information to an e-mail from Might 2023 that was a part of the litigation the place the Greenlight Chief Working Workplace mentioned in an e-mail, referring to Fishback, “He is our head of macro.” Greenlight didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In an SEC submitting, Tidal mentioned it moved to close down the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF and the Azoria TSLA Convexity ETF after reviewing related info, together with litigation tied to “current litigation involving a principal of” Azoria. Fishback disputes that the liquidation is justified and has alleged political motivations.
‘He would seem and irritate us all’
Fishback’s rise within the conservative media sphere this yr seems so far again to being launched to Ramaswamy by billionaire hedge fund supervisor Invoice Ackman, in keeping with a podcast episode Fishback appeared on with Ramaswamy in 2023. Whereas Ramaswamy took a liking to Fishback early on, Fishback’s conduct throughout the early days of Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign rapidly puzzled some staffers and raised some early purple flags as he started exhibiting as much as marketing campaign occasions across the nation unannounced and uninvited, in keeping with a number of former marketing campaign employees.
In a single occasion, Fishback, who by no means held a paid place on the marketing campaign, confirmed as much as marketing campaign occasions in Florida, together with a fundraiser at The Breakers in Palm Seashore, when the marketing campaign was nonetheless working on a shoestring price range. In accordance with former marketing campaign aides, on the finish of the Palm Seashore occasion, Fishback flagged down employees to ask if he may keep the evening in a resort room booked by the marketing campaign, which confused employees given he had not been invited or included in any occasion or price range planning.
The marketing campaign declined to pay for his keep, sources instructed ABC Information, and employees who have been not sure the place Fishback was ending up sleeping and later joked that possibly he slept on the seashore. However the request set off early issues about how a lot time Fishback was spending round Ramaswamy, staffers mentioned.
Republican Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy speaks throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Urbandale, Iowa, on Caucus Day, January 15, 2024.
Tom Brenner for The Washington Put up through Getty Photos
“I can simply let you know full cease two issues: I’ve by no means slept on any seashore, and I’ve by no means stayed an evening at The Breakers,” Fishback instructed ABC Information, dismissing the issues as “jealous staffers” who “did not like that I used to be on the aircraft or at Vivek’s home.”
Ramaswamy was initially impressed by Fishback as a younger conservative entrepreneur whose rhetorical and political model in some methods mirrored his personal, sources mentioned, and he launched Fishbeck to conservative political energy gamers and donated to the highschool debate league Fishback based, Incubate Debate. However sources mentioned that because the marketing campaign went on, staffers grew more and more pissed off by Fishbeck’s persistent efforts to determine methods to be near Ramaswamy, together with asking employees if he may trip on his non-public jet because it crisscrossed the nation.
“I liken him to a rash. He would seem and irritate us all, after which he would go away,” one former senior marketing campaign staffer mentioned. “And that is James Fishback.”
When Ramaswamy’s presidential bid ended, sources mentioned, Ramaswamy himself had grown bored with Fishback. “At first he thought he was unbelievable,” one former aide mentioned. “By the top, he didn’t.”
The connection deteriorated additional, sources mentioned, when Fishback publicly criticized Ramaswamy in December 2024 amid backlash over his feedback supporting H-1B visas, which permit firms to rent overseas staff who’re expert in specialty occupations.
Ramaswamy didn’t reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.
On the finish of October, hypothesis started to rumble about Fishback doubtlessly leaping into the Florida governor’s race after he shifted to criticizing Donalds for the primary time throughout his social media accounts. His first put up concentrating on Donalds appeared on Oct. 31, when he shared a 2012 video of Donalds supporting the H-1B visa program, which Donalds has since mentioned he was towards.
Fishback wrote that he hoped Donalds had “modified his thoughts,” and has since posted relentlessly on X, attacking Donalds over the problem. He has labeled Donalds, who’s Black, “DEI Donalds,” which a number of voices on the appropriate have criticized as racist. Fishback has pushed again on the cost, and has since appeared to assert that “DEI” meant “Did not Earn It.”
Simply weeks earlier, Fishback’s X account had a special tone towards Donalds, sharing posts from an occasion the pair had just lately finished collectively — a few of which have since been deleted.
In accordance with Fishback, he soured on Donalds and started contemplating a run towards him after having dinner with him and his spouse on the Capitol Grill in Naples, Florida, which he mentioned the Donalds paid for. Fishback did not point out his plans throughout the dinner, however Fishback mentioned he left considering, “Another person needed to step into this race.”
“Every thing modified for me on Aug. 18. I had dinner with Byron Donalds and his spouse,” Fishback mentioned. “You are not going to search out something optimistic about me and Byron Donalds after Aug. 18.”
However practically every week after the dinner, Fishback appeared alongside Donalds at a fireplace chat in his hometown of Madison County, Florida, the place he instructed the group he was honored to talk alongside Donalds and that he was “proud to name Byron Donalds a buddy.”
“It isn’t private,” Fishback instructed ABC Information. “It’s merely that I do not imagine that he can be an incredible governor.”
