Trump narrows Fed chair candidates to four, excluding Treasury Secretary Bessent
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's whittled down his list of potential Federal Reserve chair candidates to four as he considers a successor to Jerome Powell — a choice that could reset the path of the U.S. economy.
Asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box" for a future replacement for Powell, Trump named Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
"I think Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins, are very good," Trump said.
He said two other people were also under consideration, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not among them.
"I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is," Trump said. He did not name his other two top candidates but used the opportunity to disparage Powell, whom he has dubbed "too late" in cutting interest rates.
The news that Trump plans to make a decision on the Fed chair "soon" comes as the Republican president has been highly critical of Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Trump recently floated having the Fed's board of governors take full control of the U.S. central bank from Powell, whom he has relentlessly pressured to cut short-term interest rates in ways that raise questions about whether the Fed can remain free from White House politicking.
Trump has openly mused about whether to remove Powell before his tenure as chair ends, but he's held off on dismissing the Fed chair after a recent Supreme Court ruling suggested he could only do so for cause rather than out of policy disagreements. The president has put pressure on Powell by claiming he mismanaged the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project, but he's also said that he's "highly unlikely" to fire Powell.
One of the Fed's governors, Adriana Kugler, made a surprise announcement last Friday that she would be stepping away from her role. That created an opening for Trump, who called her departure "a pleasant surprise," to name a new Fed governor. Trump told CNBC it's "a possibility" that his pick to replace Kugler could also be his choice to replace Powell.
Trump told reporters that he plans to name his pick to join the Fed's board of governors soon, though he is deciding whether he'll nominate someone to permanently join the board and possibly succeed Powell or simply serve out the remaining months of Kugler's term.
"I'll be making that decision before the end of the week," Trump said later Tuesday when asked about his Fed governor pick.
Here's what to know about the two known candidates:
Kevin Hassett
Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, has been supportive of the president's agenda — from his advocacy for income tax cuts and tariffs to his support of the recent firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer.
Hassett served in the first Trump administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017.
As part of Hassett's farewell announcement in 2019, Trump called him a "true friend" who did a "great job." Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is located at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help deal with the pandemic.
On CNBC on Monday, Hassett said "all over the U.S. government, there have been people who have been resisting Trump everywhere they can."
Kevin Warsh
A former Fed governor who stepped down in 2011, Warsh is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has been supportive of cutting interest rates, a key goal of Trump's.
"The president's right to be frustrated with Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve," Warsh said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" last month.
Warsh has been increasingly critical of Powell's Federal Reserve and in July, on CNBC, called for sweeping changes on how the Fed conducts business as well as a new Treasury-Fed accord "like we did in 1951, after another period where we built up our nation's debt and we were stuck with a central bank that was working at cross purposes with the Treasury."
He said the Fed's "hesitancy to cut rates, I think, is actually quite a mark against them."
"The specter of the miss they made on inflation" after the pandemic, he said, "it has stuck with them. So one of the reasons why the president, I think, is right to be pushing the Fed publicly is we need regime change in the conduct of policy."
"He's very highly thought of," Trump said in June when asked directly about Warsh.
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.
