Trump Officials Cast A Wider Net For Powell Replacement At Fed

Trump administration officials are expanding their list of candidates to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell next year as they search for someone who can garner the trust of both the president and financial markets.

Among the people under consideration: current Fed Vice Chairs Philip Jefferson and Michelle Bowman; Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan; former St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard, and macro consultant Marc Sumerlin, according to an administration official who was granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters. More private sector names were also likely to be considered, the official said.

Those candidates are being added to a list that already includes National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, former Fed board member Kevin Warsh and current Fed board member Christopher Waller.

The list suggests officials are aiming to present President Donald Trump with a diverse set of options to replace Powell, whom Trump has relentlessly pressed to lower interest rates, and they aren’t ruling out picking a Fed insider for the job.

The selection process is especially challenging because whoever fills the seat will have to balance the central bank’s inflation-fighting credibility with Trump’s expectation that his calls for lower rates will be taken into consideration.

The new chair will also lead an institution with thousands of employees tasked with not only setting interest rates, but also regulating banks and overseeing the payments system.

Jefferson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, has been a less visible presence than other recent vice chairs at the Fed but has consistently garnered bipartisan support. He was confirmed by the Senate as the central bank’s No. 2 in an 88-10 vote.

Many of the people under consideration have publicly said the Fed should cut borrowing costs — Waller and Bowman, both Trump appointees, dissented from a decision to hold rates steady last month — but have also emphasized the importance of the institution’s insulation from short-term politics.

Bullard said on CNBC on Tuesday that he would accept the job “if we set it up for success, if we protect the value of the dollar, [to] be the reserve currency — that’ll give us lower interest rates over time, if we aim for low and stable inflation, and if we can respect the independence of the institution under the Federal Reserve Act.”

Bullard and Sumerlin’s candidacies were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, and the new internal Fed candidates were earlier reported by Bloomberg News.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed in a CNBC interview last week that a formal process for choosing Powell’s successor has kicked off but did not a provide a timeline for when the choice might be made.

In the meantime, Trump has nominated his chief economist, Stephen Miran, to an open position on the Fed, though the term for that slot ends in January. Miran has argued that the central bank should be subject to more political control.