White House Interviewing ‘11 Very Strong Candidates’ to Replace Jerome Powell: Scott Bessent

The next head of the Federal Reserve will be an expert in monetary and regulatory policy, Bessent says.

The Federal Reserve Bank in Washington on Jan. 14, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will give President Donald Trump a shortlist of Federal Reserve chair candidates after Labor Day.

In an Aug. 27 Fox Business interview, Bessent stated he and other White House officials will be interviewing “11 very strong candidates” to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The process, he noted, will begin after Labor Day.

While Bessent did not provide names, he noted that the president already knows some of them. After the interviews, he will present Trump “with three or four candidates,” he said.

Ultimately, the next head of the Federal Reserve will be an expert on monetary and regulatory policy, he said, “and knows how to run a sprawling institution.”

The senior administration official also touted Trump’s knowledge of monetary policy.

“He is very open-minded, very sophisticated on monetary policy, which I think drives some people at the Fed crazy,” he stated. “They can’t just dictate, ‘OK, Sir, here’s the way it is.’”

According to Bessent, Trump possesses “great reverence” for the institution and believes the central bank has “lost its way.”

Over the past several months, various names have been floated as potential replacements for Powell when his term expires in May 2026.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who was appointed to the Board of Governors in 2020, has emerged as the top contender, with a 27 percent chance, according to betting website Polymarket. This is followed by National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett (11 percent) and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh (9 percent).

Waller was one of two dissenting votes at the July Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting—the other being Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman. Waller has advocated for cutting interest rates to prevent a further deterioration of the U.S. labor market, citing the lag effect of monetary policy.

Hassett and Warsh have also voiced their support for reducing the benchmark federal funds rate—a key rate that influences borrowing costs for businesses, consumers, and governments—under current economic conditions.

In response to Powell’s final keynote address at Jackson Hole last week, Hassett stated that the central bank was “late to the game.”

“I think it’s appropriate for the Fed now doing what federal futures markets are saying they’re going to do with interest rates,” Hassett said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Aug. 25. “So I think that the Fed’s a little bit late to the game, but I thought that the presentation that Jay Powell made up at Jackson Hole was sound.”

Powell stated in his prepared remarks that current conditions “may warrant” a change in monetary policy, which investors took as a hint that a rate cut is coming.

Investors overwhelmingly expect the monetary authorities to restart their easing campaign that began in September 2024 and has been on hold since January. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the futures market is betting on an 87 percent chance of a quarter-point cut at next month’s meeting.

Warsh, meanwhile, has called for a “regime change” at the Federal Reserve, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in July that the central bank suffers from a “credibility deficit” that “lies with the incumbents.”

Christopher Waller testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee during a hearing on his nomination to be a member-designate on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington on Feb. 13, 2020. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

“Their hesitancy to cut rates, I think, is actually quite a mark against them,” Warsh said. “The specter of the miss they made on inflation—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.”

The president nominates heads of the Federal Reserve to serve a four-year term, while members of the Board of Governors will serve a 14-year term.

Fed Under the Spotlight

The U.S. central bank has regained the spotlight in recent days after Trump terminated Fed Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud.

“The American people must have the full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,” Trump wrote in an Aug. 25 letter to Cook posted on Truth Social. “In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.”

Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that the president “has no authority to remove” her and will pursue legal options.

“His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action,” Lowell said.

Hassett, however, told reporters that Trump “absolutely has the authority” to terminate a Fed governor “for cause.” The White House economic adviser also recommended that she take a leave of absence.

“The fact that she is not doing that suggests that she is partisan and is trying to make a partisan stance, which is contrary to the independence of the Fed.”

In recent years, other Federal Reserve officials—Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren—have resigned amid scrutiny over their personal stock trading activities, although they were never found guilty of wrongdoing.