US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he thinks he already knows his choice for the next chairman of the Federal Reserve System to replace Jerome Powell.
Trump said this while answering a question during an Oval Office appearance with visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MSB).
“I think I already know my choice. We’re talking to different people,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Trump criticized Powell for not cutting interest rates faster, saying, “Frankly, I’d like to get the guy that’s in there right now, but people are holding me back. He’s done a terrible job.”
He added that they have some surprising names and we have some standard names that everyone talks about. “We can go the standard route. It’s nice to be politically correct once in a while. But we have some great names.”
At a dinner in Tokyo in October, Trump told business leaders that they had an incompetent Fed chief, but that he would be gone in a few months and they would get someone new.
The Republican president also said he wanted Scott Bessent to take over the U.S. central bank, but that his Treasury chief refused. He reiterated Tuesday that Scott Bessent doesn’t want the job.
Last month, Bessent told reporters there were five finalists — White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and BlackRock CEO Rick Rieder.
He said he would present the top candidates to Trump in December.
Powell’s term ends in May.
Meanwhile, the divided U.S. central bank is starting to receive updated economic reports from the now-reopened federal government, Reuters reported.
It remains unclear how much data on employment, inflation, retail spending, economic growth and other aspects of the economy will be in hand by then, reports said.
Clear camps have formed inside the central bank, with several Fed governors — all appointed by President Donald Trump — arguing for further tapering and several regional reserve bank presidents taking a hard line on inflation. However, the intensity of these divisions may be masking a narrower set of concerns about timing and a desire for more data to show a clearer direction for the economy.
