President Trump is slated to start his final round of interviews this week for a new Federal Reserve chairman to replace Jerome Powell, with top White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett viewed as the frontrunner, according to reports.
Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were set to conduct the first of the interviews on Wednesday, starting with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, two sources told CNBC.
“We’re going to be looking at a couple different people, but I have a pretty good idea of who I want,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
Along with Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, the top candidates for Fed chair reportedly include Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, along with BlackRock fixed income chief Rick Rieder.
Markets are heavily betting on Trump to pick Hassett as the president looks for someone to slash rates at a speedy pace.
A CNBC survey in December showed 84% of respondents believe Trump will choose Hassett.
Prediction markets like Polymarket also show Hassett in the lead – though most bettors are placing money on Trump not naming any candidate by the end of the year.
Having held key White House roles in both Trump administrations, along with working for Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Hassett is widely viewed as the contender with the closest relationship to the president.
“Personnel decisions to be made by President Trump will be announced directly by President Trump himself,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Post in a statement. “Any discussion until then is pointless speculation.”
The upcoming round of interviews comes after a handful of meetings with potential candidates were abruptly canceled last week.
Earlier this month, Trump told reporters that he knows his top pick to replace Powell, so it’s unclear if this week’s interviews are just the last step in the process or if the president has changed his mind.
Trump, who nominated Powell during his first term, has railed against the chairman for months for not slashing interest rates quickly enough. Powell’s term expires in May 2026.
Investors have been concerned about Hassett taking the position over fears that he would simply follow Trump’s orders. But the candidate said this week that he would not make his interest-rate decisions based on political pressure.
When asked this week if he would listen to orders from Trump on Truth Social to slash rates, Hassett said: “You just do the right thing.”
“Suppose that inflation has gotten from, say, 2.5% to 4%. You can’t cut,” Hassett said during a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday.
He said he would rely on his own “judgement, which I think the president trusts, and the firm commitment to not being partisan.”
“Powell is likely going to become a lame duck fairly quickly,” Christian Hoffman, head of fixed income at Thornburg Investment Management, said in a note Wednesday.
“Hassett appears to be the preferred candidate … and an announcement should come early in the new year, potentially less than a month from now,” Hoffman added.
“That introduces the concept of a ‘shadow Fed,’ with a prospective chair offering opinions or taking potshots from the sidelines.”
The Fed is largely expected to cut interest rates again during its meeting on Wednesday. It would be its third consecutive cut so far this year.
But investors and economists expect Powell to urge caution ahead. The Fed’s forecast in September only called for a single interest-rate cut in 2026.
And policymakers are grappling with a mixed bag of economic data, including stubbornly high inflation, over 1.1 million layoffs planned for this year and a hiring slump.
Central bankers are also missing some key economic reports after the record-breaking autumn government shutdown placed a halt on data collection.
