The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Wednesday (21) that he is in the final stretch of choosing the next president of the Federal Reserve (Fed), the American central bank, and signaled that he already has a favorite.
In an interview with CNBC during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said that the process that began in September, with up to 11 names considered, is now practically decided.
“I would say we are in three, but we are in two. And I can probably say that we are, in my head, maybe in one”, he declared, without revealing the chosen one.
The list of candidates includes former and current Fed officials, economists and Wall Street executives. Among the most quoted names are former director Kevin Warsh, current director Christopher Waller, the head of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, and Rick Rieder, responsible for the fixed income area at BlackRock.
Trump praised Rieder, the last to be interviewed, calling him “impressive” and said he was satisfied with the level of all the finalists. In recent days, however, the president has already indicated that he would prefer to keep Hassett in charge of the NEC, which reduces the chances of his name moving forward.
The definition of a successor comes after a year of unprecedented turbulence in the relationship between the White House and the Fed.
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Although Trump had already harshly criticized Jerome Powell since his first term, the attacks intensified in 2025, with public attacks on the conduct of monetary policy, explicit threats of dismissal and direct action to remove director Lisa Cook, a case that was analyzed this Wednesday by the Supreme Court and is seen as the biggest recent test of the central bank’s independence.
