Kevin Hassett Reportedly Emerges As Leading Candidate To Succeed Jerome Powell As Federal Reserve Chair

• During Trump’s visit to Japan in late October, the President said that Powell would be “out in a few months” and that Bessent has a long list of potential replacements.
• Trump has consistently voiced his dissatisfaction with Powell and labelled him “Too Late.”

Kevin Hassett, the White House National Economic Council Director, has reportedly emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair, according to advisers and allies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to a Bloomberg News report, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been on the selection process since the summer to replace Powell and has been interviewing nearly a dozen candidates that have now been finalized to five contenders, namely Hassett, ex-Fed official Kevin Warsh, current central bank governor Christopher Waller, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, and BlackRock Inc.’s Rick Rieder.

The report added that Bessent noted these interviews with the candidates will end this week, and a group of finalists will soon meet with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump’s View On Powell

In late October, during Trump’s visit to Japan, the President said that Powell would be “out in a few months” and that Bessent has a long list of potential replacements. “I think he’s incompetent, or a bad guy. But despite that, mortgage rates are down.. who could believe that?” said Trump.

The U.S. President has consistently voiced his dissatisfaction with Powell and labelled him “Too Late” after faulting him for ignoring calls to cut interest rates.

Powell’s term as chair of the central bank ends in May 2026, though he could remain on the board for two more years as a governor.

US Equities On Tuesday

Meanwhile, U.S. equities rose in Tuesday’s midday trading. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up 0.69%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) rose 0.28%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) increased 1.17%.

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