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While Federal Reserve politics in Washington have shifted more toward Governor Lisa Cook’s future at the central bank, the Trump administration is still actively engaged in the search for its next chair.
Current Chair Jerome Powell’s term atop the Fed is set to expire in the spring, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has started interviewing candidates — some of whom could also fill other vacancies at the central bank. There are 11 people in the running to replace Powell, Bessent reiterated last week, adding that he plans to present “three or four” to Trump at the end of the process.
“We’ve got a couple who have surprised me,” Bessent added. He predicted the first round of interviews would wrap up in the first week of October.
While Bessent hasn’t revealed which 11 he’s considering, some Republican lawmakers are already urging him to expand his search. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, for instance, told Semafor he’d like the administration to consider tapping JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
“You really need somebody from outside the Beltway to come in and take an objective view,” said Kennedy, who serves on the committee with jurisdiction over Fed nominations. “You also need someone … that has a relationship with Chairman Powell who can pick up the phone and call him and say, ‘What do you think about this?’”
Here’s what Republicans are saying about other top contenders.
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- Fed Governor Michelle Bowman
Bowman is a Trump appointee who currently serves as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision. She’s played a key role in the administration’s pivot toward lighter-touch oversight.
“I know she just got there, but I love Miki Bowman,” Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who serves as vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, told Semafor. “If you made me king for the day, I think Miki would be a great, great option.”
Bowman supported the Fed’s decision to cut rates by a quarter-point earlier this month. But she indicated an openness to a more aggressive campaign last week when she said she believes policymakers might need to “adjust policy at a faster pace and to a larger degree.”
- Fed Governor Christopher Waller
Bessent interviewed Trump-appointed Waller, who has impressed Trump advisers with his willingness to rely on forecasting, as early as July. Like Powell, Waller is a longtime Fed official — which could mean his ties to the White House aren’t strong enough to earn Trump’s trust.
But Waller’s resume might also keep investors calm as he pursues the same aggressive interest rate cuts Trump is seeking. Waller was one of the first Fed officials to advocate for lower interest rates earlier this year, warning of a slowing labor market.
“Waller is probably my favorite among the current [candidates],” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a pivotal vote on the committee with jurisdiction over Fed nominations, told Semafor.
- Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh
Warsh, a Bush appointee who was also in the running to helm Trump’s Treasury Department, emerged early as a favorite to take over for Powell. Passed over for Powell in 2017, he’s previously defended high interest rates — but he signaled a pivot in July when he told Fox News that the Fed’s rates “are too high.”
“Warsh is an incredibly talented guy whose views of Fed policy and monetary policy are perfectly aligned with the administration’s views,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who chairs the House Financial Services Committee’s financial institutions panel, told Semafor.
Barr added that he has “shared my high opinion of Kevin Warsh with the Treasury secretary.”
- White House adviser Kevin Hassett
Hassett, another frontrunner for the job, is a vocal advocate for Trump’s economic agenda as director of his National Economic Council.
Some former colleagues say that track record means a Hassett chairmanship might jeopardize the Fed’s independence as Trump seeks greater control over the central bank. Hassett, however, has said monetary policy “needs to be fully independent of political influence — including from President Trump.”
- Fed Governor Philip Jefferson
A two-time Joe Biden appointee, Jefferson received broad bipartisan support each time the Senate voted on his confirmation. Still, some Republican lawmakers said Trump may be reluctant to tap a policymaker previously nominated by a Democrat.
Jefferson, who would be the Fed’s first Black chair, has kept a lower profile than other former Fed vice chairs. His pushback against an effort to overhaul capital requirements earned him praise from Washington allies of the banking industry, which despised that proposal.
- Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan
Logan, historically one of the Fed’s more hawkish officials, does not get a vote on interest rates this year. But she has spoken frequently about the importance of using them to stop tariffs from driving prices up.
Her decision to not address monetary policy in remarks last month in Mexico City fueled some speculation that she could be weighing a pivot toward more open advocacy for lower rates.
- BlackRock’s Rick Rieder
Like Waller, Trump advisers view Rieder’s willingness to lean on forecasts as a plus. He’s also advocated for more aggressive rate cuts, saying in August that the Fed would be justified in cutting rates by twice as much as they did.
- Jefferies’ David Zervos
Like Rieder, Zervos is a Wall Street veteran who has also argued for bigger rate cuts — though he’s gone even further by saying he sees a case for rate cuts larger than a half-point.
A former economist at the Fed, he has deviated from some other contenders in critiquing Powell for “operating politically from the left” and in advocating for cryptocurrency.
- Economist Marc Sumerlin
Sumerlin is a former George W. Bush adviser and friend of Bessent’s who said last month that he’s never met Trump. An advocate for aggressive rate cuts, he’s also stressed the importance of Fed independence. Any nomination, he said, would “depend on [him and the White House] seeing eye-to-eye.”
- Former St. Louis Fed president James Bullard
Bullard left the St. Louis Fed last year to serve as dean of the business school at Purdue University. Like Sumerlin, he’s underscored the importance of being “set up for success” before accepting any nomination, including by agreeing to “keep inflation low” and “protect the independence of the institution.”
He said this month that he would not have supported a half-point rate cut: “I thought the Fed’s decision [to cut by a quarter-point] was a good one.”
- Former Fed Governor Larry Lindsey
Lindsey, another former Bush adviser, has signaled a more cautious approach to cutting rates; he told Fox Business in August that the Fed needs to “keep in mind” how big rate cuts can drive up Treasury yields.
Though he’s previously called Trump “a total narcissist,” the two appeared to have made amends in 2020 when Trump tapped him to help with fallout from the pandemic.
Notable
- Trump’s latest Fed pick, Stephen Miran, said this week that interest rates should be two points lower, The New York Times reports.
- Trump’s calls for lower interest rates come as his administration looks to exert greater control over the Fed’s other main responsibility: bank supervision, per Semafor.