White House expands search to replace Fed Chair Powell | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

President Donald Trump wants to Make America Wealthy Again.

As part of that campaign, he has widened the search for a replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell with whom the president has an escalating clash over interest rates.

💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter💰💵

Powell’s term as chair expires in May.

Trump has strongly and bluntly indicated he would like the next chair to share his hawkish view toward aggressive monetary policy.

Global markets don’t like to see the independence of the central bank threatened by intense political efforts by the executive office to influence monetary policy.

Historically, massive economic and market failures result once the politicians take the keys to the bank away from the economists.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman is reportedly one of the additional candidates under consideration by the Trump administration for the role of the next Fed chair.

Image source&colon; Bloomberg/Getty Images

Trump targets the next Fed chair

Trump can’t legally fire Powell. So he has escalated a campaign to create a “shadow presidency’’ at the Federal Reserve and name a new chair before May in an attempt to pressure Powell to lower interest rates.

The president has three options.

All center on the recent nomination of Council of Economic Advisors Chair Stephen Miran to fill a surprise temporary opening on the seven-member Fed Board of Governors.

Miran’s temporary term expires Jan. 31.

Trump could:

Elevate Miran, a Trump loyalist who has advocated for massive Fed reforms, to a permanent role and name him the next chair.

Nominate an external permanent replacement for Miran who would join the Fed in January and take over as chair in May.

Tap an internal candidate as the next chair.

Fed search adds new chair candidates: report

The president has widened the search and added the Fed’s two vice chairs, Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Bloomberg reported Aug. 11.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is running the search, will interview additional candidates in the coming weeks and present a short list of finalists to Trump.

The president is expected to make a final announcement this fall, Bloomberg reported.

Other candidates who remain under consideration include:

Kevin Hassett, a close economic adviser to Trump.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller, a Trump appointee.
Economist Marc Sumerlin.
Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor.
James Bullard, former head of the St. Louis Fed.

As for Powell, Fed chairs traditionally leave the central bank when their terms run out.

If he chooses, he can stay on as a governor until 2028.

Trump appointed Bowman to the Fed in 2018 and made her vice chair for supervision earlier this year.

Jefferson was appointed to the board by President Joseph Biden in 2022 and appointed vice chair in 2023.

Fed to vote on interest rates next month

The Federal Reserve’s dual congressional mandate requires monetary policy that balances low unemployment and low inflation.

The Fed has maintained a “wait-and-see” approach to the benchmark Federal Funds Rate this year in part to assess whether the expected tariff inflation will be a one-time hit to the economy or a longer sustained blow.

More Federal Reserve:

Fed officials had been expected to cut rates modestly in 2025, with their June projections showing a median suitable Federal Funds Rate of 3.9% at year-end, down from the current 4.25%–4.50%.

The Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates steady for a fifth straight time in July.

Bowman and Waller, also a Trump appointee, dissented in favor of a .25% cut, pointing to a weakening labor market.

The next FOMC meeting is Sept. 17.

The Senate is not expected to vote on Miran’s nomination in time for him to attend.

The CME Group’s FedWatch Tool places the chance of a .25% rate cut in September at 85.9%.