PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump has announced he has three or four names in mind to replace Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, Jerome Powell, Christopher Waller, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Kevin Warsh, Kevin Hassett, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Trump revealed he had narrowed his search for the next Fed chairman during a press conference on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
🎯IMPACT: The timing of when President Trump could move to replace Powell is uncertain, as at least two legal avenues exist where the central bank chief could be ousted early. However, President Trump has at times indicated he is content to wait for Powell’s term as Fed chair to expire next year before replacing him.
President Donald J. Trump announced on Wednesday that he now has just three to four names in mind to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as chief of the U.S. central bank. While the America First leader did not elaborate on who specifically could be tapped to replace Powell, speculation among Wall Street movers and Washington, D.C. political insiders has shed light on the potential nominees.
Notably, Powell’s term as Federal Reserve chairman doesn’t expire until next year, and while President Trump has recently indicated he is content to wait on replacing Powell until then, tensions between them are rising, and there remain two legal paths in which a new Fed chief could be named sooner. Powell and Trump have repeatedly clashed over the former’s obstinance toward reducing interest rates, a policy stance the President has repeatedly pushed for.
The National Pulse has compiled an analysis on both how Trump could move to replace Powell as Fed chair before his term expires and who the three or four candidates under consideration to lead the central bank may be.
HOW TO REPLACE POWELL.
Current federal legal precedent makes it difficult to outright fire Jerome Powell as both Federal Reserve chairman and a member of the central bank’s Board of Governors. However, that precedent could soon change under a legal case working its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Trump v. Wilcox, the Trump White House is challenging a nearly century-old finding in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which bars the President from firing board members of so-called “independent” agencies.
In the current Wilcox case, the Trump administration is fighting a legal claim that it cannot fire members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Already, the Supreme Court has moved to stay a lower court ruling blocking the Trump administration’s firings, suggesting that the high court is likely to ultimately side with the President. However, the stay order included a specific carve-out—for now—preventing its application to members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. This would suggest that unless the White House can present a convincing enough argument, a final ruling from the high court would likely still protect Powell, at least in his capacity as a Fed governor.
The second avenue available also involves the Humphrey’s Executor v. United States ruling, which protects the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors from being fired by the President without cause, but doesn’t necessarily prevent the central bank’s chairman from being demoted and replaced by another board member. Under this theory, President Trump could demote Powell from his perch as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, while leaving him in place as a member of the Board of Governors. Consequently, this would allow Trump to then elevate another member of the Board of Governors to the position of Chairman. Despite having more solid legal grounding, this move would still likely draw litigation that could see Powell kept in place as Chairman until the Supreme Court settles the question.
Should President Trump pursue either avenue to remove Powell as Federal Reserve chairman before the expiration of his term, it would likely rile markets and increase economic volatility. Uncertainty regarding Fed leadership is widely seen as undesirable on Wall Street.
THE NEXT FED CHAIRMAN.
While when or how Jerome Powell will be replaced as Federal Reserve chairman remains unclear, President Trump indicated during a press conference on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, that he has three or four names in mind to succeed the current central bank chief. The current consensus on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C. appears to have settled on three likely candidates: current Fed Board of Governors member Christopher Waller, President Trump’s current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and former Fed Board of Governors member Kevin Warsh. Meanwhile, there is less certainty as to who the fourth name under consideration could be, though it is possibly Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.
Christopher Waller, who was appointed to the Fed’s Board of Governors by President Trump in late 2020, would be the likely choice for chairman if Trump moves to demote Jerome Powell. Since there is not currently a vacancy on the Board of Governors, President Trump would need to elevate another current member to replace Powell, making Waller the likely choice. A former executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Waller has emerged as one of the Fed’s most staunch inflation hawks; however, in recent weeks he has acknowledged that inflation is under control and pushed for the Fed to instead begin cutting interest rates, aligning himself with President Trump’s policy preference.
While Waller could still be the pick should Trump decide to wait for Powell’s term as chairman to end, the America First leader may opt to name a central bank outsider more aligned with his policy preference for lower interest rates. In this case, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is a likely choice. Bessent, 61, was an early Trump backer, donating a million dollars to his 2016 presidential campaign. He has helped raise nearly $60 million for Trump since. Bessent, a macro fund manager, was an integral figure in monetary markets in the 1990s and early 2000s. In the current Trump administration, Bessent has served as the primary public face on economic matters, especially regarding tariffs and bilateral trade negotiations, being one of Trump’s most effective and aggressive advocates when engaging with the corporate media.
The third name that could be under consideration is former Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Kevin Warsh. Notably, Warsh was rumored to have been considered for Treasury Secretary before President Trump named Bessent to the role. Warsh has deep ties to Wall Street, acting as the central bank’s liaison to investors and major financial firms in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The former Fed governor also has extensive experience with Asian economies, meaning he could prove a valuable asset in ongoing trade negotiations with China and their potential impacts on monetary policy and bond markets.
Rounding out the rumored picks is Kevin Hassett, President Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council. A long-time figure in Washington, D.C. conservative economic circles, Hassett is a possible dark horse candidate. The former director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) served as a key economic advisor in Trump’s first term in the White House before being tapped to lead the National Economic Council in January 2025. Hassett, with a background steeped in tax and fiscal policy, has—like Bessent—served as one of the Trump White House’s key spokesmen on economic and trade issues. In recent months, Hassett has served as a lead White House advocate in the media and on Capitol Hill, pushing for President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” implementing the bulk of the American First leader’s tax and fiscal policy agenda.
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