Meet Trump’s Growing Shortlist to Replace Jerome Powell | Invesloan.com

Fed Gov. Christopher Waller’s chances appeared diminished when Trump praised “the Two Kevins” on August 5. But Waller’s name rose to the top of leading prediction markets after Bloomberg News reported days later that he was emerging as the president’s favorite.

Waller, a longtime regional Fed official, was seen as a convention pick when Trump nominated him to the central bank in 2019. Simultaneously, Trump also nominated Judy Shelton, a former campaign advisor and a Fed critic. The fight over Shelton’s nomination soon spilled over onto Waller’s.

In December 2020, the Senate confirmed Waller 48-47, the narrowest margin for any Fed governor since 1980, per The New York Times.

In July, Waller joined Gov. Michelle Bowman (another Trump first-term pick) in opposing the Fed’s decision not to cut interest rates, the first dual dissent in more than 30 years.

Before joining Trump’s orbit, Hassett advised a succession of Republican presidential nominees on economic policy, including George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.

During Trump’s first term, Hassett served as director of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors. He returned to the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic and was severely criticized for publishing a model showing coronavirus deaths hitting zero by May 15, 2020.

In October 1999, Hassett cowrote with journalist Jason Glassman “Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting From the Coming Rise in the Stock Market.” Some economists have heavily criticized the book, largely because the index took more than 22 years to reach that threshold.

Trump reportedly considered Warsh to lead the Fed before he chose to nominate Powell in 2017.

Warsh spent his early years at Morgan Stanley, working as a specialist in mergers and acquisitions. President George W. Bush nominated him to the Fed in 2006 after Warsh served as an economic advisor in the Bush White House.

Drawing on his Wall Street ties, Warsh played a pivotal role in the central bank’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis. When he left the Fed in 2011, the Times called him the Fed’s chief liaison to Wall Street.

From the sidelines, Warsh has echoed Trump’s criticism of Powell, calling for “regime change” at the Fed.

“The specter of the miss they made on inflation, it has stuck with them,” Warsh told CNBC in July. “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.”

James “Jim” Bullard spent 15 years leading the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and is now the dean of Purdue’s business school.

During his time on the Fed’s Open Markets Committee, Bullard was viewed as a key indicator of the central bank’s policy. He remains a frequent commentator on economic news.

Bullard has previously expressed interest in serving as Fed chairman if a vacancy occurred. He recently told CNBC that he has spoken with Bessent about the position.

Bowman is one of three current Fed governors who are reportedly under consideration to replace Powell.

In 2018, Trump appointed Bowman to the central bank. After confirmation, she was reappointed in 2020. In June, she was narrowly confirmed as the vice chair of supervision.

Bowman started as an intern for Sen. Bob Dole. During the George W. Bush administration, she held posts at FEMA and the Homeland Security Department. She was vice president at Farmers and Drovers Bank in Kansas, her family’s bank, before becoming the state’s top banking official.

In September 2024, Bowman became the first Fed governor to vote against an interest rate decision since 2005. In July, she again voted against holding rates steady, though this time Waller joined her dissent.

Lorie Logan leads the Dallas Fed, a position she has held since 2022.

She is an alternate member of the FOMC, though she is in line to be a voting member in 2026. The Fed’s rate-setting panel has permanent spots for the seven governors and the leader of the New York Fed. The other 11 Fed bank presidents serve on the FOMC on a rotating basis.

Logan is the first woman to serve as President of the Dallas Fed full-time. Before her election, she spent more than two decades at the New York Fed, including a stint managing the Fed’s securities portfolio.

Unlike others under consideration, Logan has supported keeping rates unchanged this year.

David Zervos, Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist at Jefferies, has become a top voice on Wall Street since joining the firm in 2010.

In 2009, Zervos served as a visiting advisor to the Fed in Washington. He began his career as a Fed economist in the 1990s.

Zervos has advocated for the Fed to take aggressive moves to cut rates. After he came under reported consideration, Zervos said that Powell was “operating from the anti-Trump side.”

“I think he’s actually quite a bit dependent,” Zervos told CNBC. “He’s operating politically from the left. Or, let’s put it this way, from the anti-Trump side.”

Former Fed Gov. Larry Lindsey leads an eponymous consulting firm after spending decades as a top economic advisor to Republicans.

Lindsey served on the central bank from 1991 to 1997. He started on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Reagan administration and later joined George H.W. Bush’s White House. Lindsey was George W. Bush’s chief economic advisor during the 2000 campaign and served as director of Bush 43’s National Economic Council.

In recent years, Lindsey has been critical of Trump. In 2019, Politico reported that Lindsey privately called the then-president “a 10-out-of-10 narcissist” during a meeting with top House Republicans. It didn’t stop Lindsey from advising the Trump White House on the COVID-19 response.

In April, Lindsey told CNBC that Trump’s attacks on Powell “exacerbated” a brief downturn in the markets.

Lindsey has authored four books, including a 2021 political thriller about a fictional currency war between the US and China.

A Biden appointee, Jefferson has served on the Fed since 2022 and became vice chair roughly a year later.

Before joining the central bank, Jefferson was vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Davidson College. He was easily confirmed to the Fed.

If Trump were to nominate Jefferson, it would be a historic moment. Jefferson would be the Fed’s first Black chair; he is just the fourth Black man to be a Fed governor.

Jefferson previously worked with Hassett, thought to be one of the leading candidates, at Columbia. When President Biden nominated Jefferson, Hassett had effusive praise for his former colleague.

“Phil Jefferson is someone I would have been 100% comfortable telling President Trump to nominate to the Federal Reserve,” Hassett said in 2022. “He’s exactly the kind of person I want at the Fed.”

Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock, has spent decades on Wall Street, dating back to his time at Lehman Brothers.

Rieder is responsible for managing roughly $2.4 trillion in assets, per Blackrock. He’s served as a member of the Fed’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.

CNBC reported that Rieder is one of the 11 potential candidates.

Reider recently told Business Insider that he is bullish in his outlook.

“There is change afoot. One of the great things about investing in this environment is it’s not static,” Reider told BI in May.

Like others on this list, Sumerlin worked as an economic policy advisor to President George W. Bush and rose to become deputy director of the National Economic Council.

Sumerlin founded a consulting firm in 2013. According to the Journal, his work with the firm has led to interactions with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Once a potential candidate himself, Bessent is conducting initial interviews with all of the candidates.