Trump has said on several occasions that he believes the Fed is stifling the economy by being too slow to cut rates.
President Donald Trump said on Nov. 30 that he has already decided on his pick to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, adding that an announcement is forthcoming, but declining to identify his nominee.
“I know who I am going to pick, yeah,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way back from Florida to Washington on Sunday.
When asked whether he would nominate National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, the current frontrunner to replace Powell according to betting markets, Trump smiled and replied, “I’m not going to tell you, we’ll be announcing it.”
Trump appointed Powell to lead the Fed in 2017. The president has become increasingly critical of the central bank chief in recent months, however, repeatedly lambasting Powell and Fed policymakers for refusing to lower interest rates even though inflation has fallen substantially from its 2022 peak of 9 percent and signs of strain are emerging in the economy.
“Frankly, I would love to get the guy currently in there out right now, but people are holding me back,” Trump remarked to reporters about Powell on Nov. 18 in the Oval Office. “He’s done a terrible job.”
Lowering interest rates would make borrowing cheaper and boost growth at a time when labor markets have cooled, and consumer confidence has slumped.
Trump has said on several occasions that he believes the Fed is stifling the economy by being too slow to cut rates. Powell and some other Fed policymakers have defended their interest rate decisions, saying that price pressures remain and more time is needed to determine that inflation is moving sustainably towards the central bank’s 2 percent target.
The Fed trimmed rates by a quarter point in September, its first cut since last year, and repeated the move in October, pushing the benchmark rate down to 3.75–4 percent.
Whether the central bank cuts again in December is uncertain. While markets put the odds of another 25 basis point reduction at nearly 88 percent, Fed officials at their October meeting were split over another round of easing, struggling to reconcile signs of labor-market weakness with renewed inflation pressures.
With Powell’s term ending in May 2026, speculation has been building about his successor. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said previously that Trump had narrowed his search to five candidates: Hassett, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and Fed Board members Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller.
By Tom Ozimek
