White House expands list of candidates to replace Powell as U.S. Fed chief - Bloomberg

Two current deputy Fed chiefs, Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson, and Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Laurie Logan are being considered for the Federal Reserve chairmanship that will become vacant next year, two sources in Donald Trump's administration told Bloomberg. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will interview the new candidates in the coming weeks and present a short list to the president, the agency's sources said.

The White House has expanded the list of candidates for the post of the new Fed chairman, who is to succeed Jerome Powell in May 2026. Bloomberg sources in the White House said that two deputy heads of the regulator - Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson, as well as Chairman of the FRB Dallas Laurie Logan - are considered among the candidates.

Bowman has already been mentioned among those whom the media have named among the contenders for Fed chief, but Jefferson and Logan have not.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is leading the search process, will interview the new nominees in the coming weeks and present a short list to the president, agency sources said. Trump is expected to announce a final decision in the fall, they said.

Bowman was appointed to the Fed's Board of Governors in 2018, she - like Powell - was nominated by Trump himself, and this year he made her vice chair for supervision. When the Fed left the interest rate unchanged for the fifth straight time in July, Bowman was one of only two members of the committee who favored lowering it , the other being Christopher Waller, whom Bloomberg last week called the favorite to head the Fed.

Trump has long criticized the regulator in general and Powell in particular for what he sees as high interest rates.

Jefferson was appointed to the Board of Governors by President Joe Biden in 2022, and he also made him vice chairman in 2023. Both times, his nomination received broad bipartisan support in the Senate. Jefferson has consistently supported the Fed's decisions to keep rates at the same level.

Logan this year, she has also voiced support for an unchanged rate, often emphasizing the need to take into account the risks of inflation caused by trade duties.

Other candidates the White House is considering include Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Fed Board of Governors member Christopher Waller, economist Mark Samerlin, and former Fed officials Kevin Warsh and James Bullard.

Trump is limited by the composition of the Board of Governors, Bloomberg recalls, and notes that the president doesn't have much freedom to choose. Last week, he nominated Steven Miran, who heads the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a vacant seat on the board. If his nomination is approved by the Senate, his term will expire at the end of January.

Fed chairmen traditionally leave the Board when their term at its head ends, but Powell has not yet said whether he will leave. If he decides to stay, he could continue as a regular member of the Board of Governors until 2028. That means Trump would have to either nominate his candidate to replace Miran in January and then promote him to chairman, or pick an existing member of the Board - such as Bowman or Jefferson.

Since Miran's nomination has already been submitted to the Senate for confirmation, the president's team does not consider it necessary to rush the selection of the future head of the regulator, the agency's sources explained.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor