New Delhi, April 24 -- President Donald Trump has named Christopher Phelan as his next chief economist, an increasingly important role as the White House focuses on affordability and employment ahead of the midterm elections.

Assuming he is confirmed, Phelan will become chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, counseling the president on economic matters. He will replace acting CEA Chief Pierre Yared.

Yared is standing in for Stephen Miran, who left the CEA in September when Trump appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve Board.

"Miran was an ideological ally," says Jacob Bastian, a senior economist at CEA during the Biden administration and an assistant professor of economics at Rutgers University. "We ha...