Before floating challenge to Trump’s Florida governor pick, James Fishback sought Fed role, investments from Trump world

In August, amid President Donald Trump’s clash with the Federal Reserve, top Trump advisers began receiving a wave of calls and text messages from an unexpected source insisting he could solve the administration’s problem, pressing to be appointed to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, one of the most influential economic posts in government.

The push was from James Fishback, a 30-year-old investment firm CEO and political newcomer who pitched himself to Trump advisers as a fierce supporter of the president who should replace Adriana Kugler, who had announced she would step down as a Federal Reserve governor, claiming he would serve as Trump’s “bulldog” on the Federal Reserve Board, sources told ABC News.

Fishback privately reached out to James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff, urging him to consider him for the role while also contacting influential outside Trump advisers, like Alex Bruesewitz, who Fishback asked if he could vouch for him to the president himself.

“I’d be honored if you can put in a good word with the boss for me,” Fishback texted him, according to Bruesewitz. 

Fishback was persistent, lobbying for the role daily, the sources said, and circulated a memo outlining why he should be chosen, which touted his loyalty to Trump and his promises to vote for large interest rate cuts, and included a list of his cable-news appearances, according to a memo reviewed by ABC News.

“I would be honored to serve as a bulldog fighter for the President and his movement at the Federal Reserve for 5 months. I would defend his agenda on the Fed Board (which suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome),” the memo reads.

After a local Florida social media account posted an unattributed claim on X that Fishback was “being floated” for the Fed role, speculation sparked online and on cable news networks that he was in fact under serious consideration.

Amid the push, Fishback even called President Donald Trump directly and pitched himself for the role, sources told ABC News. 

But in reality, Fishback was never under consideration for the Fed position, multiple sources tell ABC News, and senior White House officials ultimately concluded that Fishback had created the entire news cycle. President Trump would go on to name Stephen Miran, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, to the position. 

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

Now, months after his unsuccessful push to have Trump name him to the Fed board, Fishback is floating plans to launch an insurgent 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 last two weeks unloading relentless attacks on Donalds, while even taking shots at President Trump and getting into social media spats with the same Trump advisers he had been lobbying a few short months ago. 

When asked if being passed over for the fed role played any role in his decision to run, Fishback told ABC News, “Not at all.”

“I called President Trump in early August and offered to serve out the final months of the remaining term of a newly vacated seat at the Federal Reserve. I was glad to see that he later picked my friend Steve Miran for the role, who I have known for years,” Fishback told ABC News. “The D.C. establishment speaking anonymously to the press to try to hurt my campaign before even I’ve even declared tells you how much they fear my run for Florida governor.”

“The only thing that has to do with this, me getting into this race, is Byron Donalds being an utter America last failure,” he said.

Fishback floating a potential run is the latest wrench thrown into next year’s Republican primary for Florida governor, a race that’s already swirling with intrigue. While Trump has endorsed Donalds, sources tell ABC News that Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection, is still searching for a potential heir to back in the primary to continue what he views as his legacy in the state. 

Rumors have circulated about Lt. Gov. Jay Collins possibly jumping into the race, and earlier this year sources told ABC News that DeSantis’ wife, Casey, was seriously considering a 2026 run for Florida governor to succeed her husband. At one point, former congressman-turned-OAN host Matt Gaetz was also weighing a gubernatorial run next year, sources said, but after a damning House Ethics Committee report released earlier this year, speculation around his candidacy has since died down.

When asked if he had ruled out running next year, Gaetz wouldn’t say, instead telling ABC News, “Right now I’m having a blast growing ‘The Matt Gaetz Show’ on One America News!”

Fishback’s effort to secure a spot on the Federal Reserve Board was just one in a growing list of episodes that sources said have puzzled some in the MAGA world since his profile has risen over the course of the year.

“A lot of people are just asking themselves, who the hell is this guy?” one Trump adviser told ABC News.

“Clearly, Byron Donalds and his D.C. establishment backers see me as a threat,” Fishback told ABC News. “They should. Floridians are sick and tired of the inside baseball. They want a governor who will preserve Ron DeSantis’ legacy and make it easier to get a great paying job, buy a home, raise a family, and retire with dignity.”

“Voters want and deserve a leader who will fight for Florida — not sell us out to multinational corporations that want to develop every inch of our state, build AI data centers that threaten our water supply and raise our electric bills, and replace American workers with H-1B servants,” Fishback said.

Fishback’s lobbying for a Fed Board seat was not the first time he had privately sought support from Trump world. Weeks earlier this year, he began reaching out to figures in Trump’s orbit, looking for investments in his newly launched Azoria exchange-traded fund. 

Alex Bruesewitz, a senior adviser to Never Surrender PAC and influential MAGA figure who is backing Donalds’ run for governor, told ABC News that Fishback approached him earlier this year and the two met for coffee in West Palm Beach, where Fishback boasted of numerous political and financial ventures he claimed were underway.

Soon after, Fishback sent documents for Bruesewitz to wire $25,000 into the Azoria fund and promising substantial returns.

In an email from late July obtained by ABC News, Fishback thanked Bruesewitz for agreeing to make the investment.

“He was talking about how he’s going to make me so much money in return,” Bruesewitz told ABC News, adding that the documents included lofty projections and plans for additional funds, and highlighted Fishback’s social media reach. 

Bruesewitz said that before wiring the money, he became uneasy over the proposal, having only recently met Fishback, and showed the materials to a friend who manages several publicly traded funds. The friend warned that the proposal appeared dubious, Bruesewitz said. 

In response, Fishback told ABC News that Bruesewitz has every reason to fabricate smears about him and push them to the media given that he is supporting the Trump-backed candidate in Florida’s gubernatorial primary.

Bruesewitz ultimately declined to invest in 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 said came after “considering all relevant information, including without limitation recent litigation involving a principal of” Azoria. 

Fishback called the move another example of “de-banking of conservatives,” arguing that it came after he vowed to “stop investing in companies that use the H-1B program to fire Americans.”

‘DOGE adviser?‘

Fishback had a breakthrough moment on the conservative media scene earlier this year, riding the wave of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, when he began appearing on CNN, Fox News, and Newsmax, often described as a “DOGE adviser,” weighing in on work being done by the team. His platform grew even more when in a post on X in February, he pitched Musk the idea of DOGE dividend checks that would pay Americans money based on government savings. 

After the idea caught fire online, Musk said he would bring the concept to Trump — who later endorsed the idea and has since floated a similar concept around sending Americans $2,000 “tariff dividend” checks.

The success of Fishback’s viral “DOGE dividend” idea led to more media appearances by Fishback, raising his profile further.

In an interview with conservative news outlet Breitbart in July, Fishback was asked, “Tell us about your time at DOGE. What was it like, and when did you leave?” 

Fishback replied, “I started working on the DOGE movement at the beginning with Vivek (Ramaswamy, an initial DOGE co-lead), and I left at the end of May or early June when Elon had this big fallout with the president that he lost, and it is because Elon did not deliver in the way I thought he would have.” 

However, even though he made appearances across cable news as a “DOGE adviser” and claimed he was one on social media, multiple senior officials who worked for DOGE, both before its official establishment in January and after, told ABC News that Fishback never held any official or informal role advising Musk or the DOGE team, and that he was inflating his connection to the group. 

“The idea he had anything to do with DOGE is laughable,” a former senior DOGE official told ABC News. 

Fishback disputed claims that he misrepresented his connections to Musk and DOGE to boost his profile. He acknowledged he was never a paid DOGE employee, arguing that his involvement came from drafting the so-called “DOGE dividend,” the proposal he independently pitched to Musk over X, and dismissed DOGE officials’ accusations that he overstated his role as a dispute over “semantics.”

In July, a former senior DOGE adviser and spokesperson for Elon Musk responded to a post from Fishback on X where he said he “advised DOGE.”

“You didn’t advise DOGE,” Katie Miller wrote. Fishback responded to Miller’s post by writing to Musk, “Stop making your employees lie for you.”

Fishback has faced allegations of misrepresenting his credentials before. A lawsuit filed earlier this year by his former employer, Greenlight Capital and DME Capital Management, alleged that he misrepresented his position at the company in order to gain credibility for his own fund, Azoria Partners, by falsely claiming he was the company’s “Head of Macro.” 

“Fishback falsely represented himself to industry contacts and at industry events as Greenlight’s ‘Head of Macro’ and the person running macro investing at Greenlight and responsible for the performance of its macro investment portfolio. None of these things were true,” the lawsuit alleges. 

Fishback’s former employer claims he repeatedly told industry contacts, conference audiences, podcast hosts, and social media followers that he held the “Head of Macro” role. However, the company says that Fishback was hired as a research analyst and was never given any such role because, as the lawsuit states, “the title ‘Head of Macro’ has never existed at Greenlight.”

“Fishback apparently thought this would provide him and Azoria with more credibility and help attract investors at Greenlight’s expense,” the lawsuit claims. 

In September, Fishback admitted to sharing unauthorized, confidential company information with individuals outside the firm, according to a joint court filing from the company and Fishback. Fishback agreed to return and permanently delete any confidential information that remained in his possession, the court filing said. 

The court filing omitted some of the firm’s allegations, including alleged misstatements about Fishback’s position at the firm, which Fishback maintains “were introduced and then eliminated from Greenlight’s lawsuit.”

“The only claim of Greenlight’s that advanced was a vanilla ‘breach of contract’ claim,” Fishback told ABC News in a statement, and pointed ABC News to an email from May 2023 that was part of the litigation where the Greenlight Chief Operating Office said in an email, referring to Fishback, “He’s our head of macro.” Greenlight did not respond to a request for comment.

In an SEC filing, Tidal said it moved to shut down the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF and the Azoria TSLA Convexity ETF after reviewing relevant information, including litigation tied to “recent litigation involving a principal of” Azoria. Fishback disputes that the liquidation is justified and has alleged political motivations. 

‘He would appear and irritate us all’

Fishback’s rise in the conservative media sphere this year appears to date back to being introduced to Ramaswamy by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, according to a podcast episode Fishback appeared on with Ramaswamy in 2023. While Ramaswamy took a liking to Fishback early on, Fishback’s behavior during the early days of Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign quickly puzzled some staffers and raised some early red flags as he began showing up to campaign events around the country unannounced and uninvited, according to multiple former campaign staff.

In one instance, Fishback, who never held a paid position on the campaign, showed up to campaign events in Florida, including a fundraiser at The Breakers in Palm Beach, when the campaign was still operating on a shoestring budget. According to former campaign aides, at the end of the Palm Beach event, Fishback flagged down staff to ask if he could stay the night in a hotel room booked by the campaign, which confused staff given he had not been invited or included in any event or budget planning.

The campaign declined to pay for his stay, sources told ABC News, and staff who were unsure where Fishback was ending up sleeping and later joked that maybe he slept on the beach. But the request set off early concerns about how much time Fishback was spending around Ramaswamy, staffers said. 

“I can just tell you full stop two things: I’ve never slept on any beach, and I’ve never stayed a night at The Breakers,” Fishback told ABC News, dismissing the concerns as “jealous staffers” who “didn’t like that I was on the plane or at Vivek’s house.” 

Ramaswamy was initially impressed by Fishback as a young conservative entrepreneur whose rhetorical and political style in some ways mirrored his own, sources said, and he introduced Fishbeck to conservative political power players and donated to the high school debate league Fishback founded, Incubate Debate. But sources said that as the campaign went on, staffers grew increasingly frustrated by Fishbeck’s persistent efforts to figure out ways to be close to Ramaswamy, including asking staff if he could ride on his private jet as it crisscrossed the country. 

“I liken him to a rash. He would appear and irritate us all, and then he would go away,” one former senior campaign staffer said. “And that’s James Fishback.”

When Ramaswamy’s presidential bid ended, sources said, Ramaswamy himself had grown tired of Fishback. “At first he thought he was fantastic,” one former aide said. “By the end, he did not.” 

The relationship deteriorated further, sources said, when Fishback publicly criticized Ramaswamy in December 2024 amid backlash over his comments supporting H-1B visas, which allow companies to hire foreign workers who are skilled in specialty occupations. 

Ramaswamy did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

At the end of October, speculation began to rumble about Fishback potentially jumping into the Florida governor’s race after he shifted to criticizing Donalds for the first time across his social media accounts. His first post targeting Donalds appeared on Oct. 31, when he shared a 2012 video of Donalds supporting the H-1B visa program, which Donalds has since said he was against.

Fishback wrote that he hoped Donalds had “changed his mind,” and has since posted relentlessly on X, attacking Donalds over the issue. He has labeled Donalds, who is Black, “DEI Donalds,” which several voices on the right have criticized as racist. Fishback has pushed back on the charge, and has since appeared to claim that “DEI” meant “Didn’t Earn It.”

Just weeks earlier, Fishback’s X account had a different tone toward Donalds, sharing posts from an event the pair had recently done together — some of which have since been deleted.

According to Fishback, he soured on Donalds and began considering a run against him after having dinner with him and his wife at the Capitol Grill in Naples, Florida, which he said the Donalds paid for. Fishback didn’t mention his plans during the dinner, but Fishback said he left thinking, “Someone else had to step into this race.”  

“Everything changed for me on Aug. 18. I had dinner with Byron Donalds and his wife,” Fishback said. “You’re not going to find anything positive about me and Byron Donalds after Aug. 18.”

But  nearly a week after the dinner, Fishback appeared alongside Donalds at a fireside chat in his hometown of Madison County, Florida, where he told the crowd he was honored to speak alongside Donalds and that he was “proud to call Byron Donalds a friend.”

“It’s not personal,” Fishback told ABC News. “It is simply that I don’t believe that he would be a great governor.”