Scott Bessent floats when Trump might name Powell’s replacement

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that the Trump administration will announce a potential new Federal Reserve chairman nominee in either December or January.

Tensions between Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and the Trump administration have ramped up in recent months, as President Donald Trump continues to push for Powell to step down. While discussing the administration’s success with reciprocal tariffs against a handful of countries, Fox’s Laura Ingraham asked Bessent why Americans should suffer another 10 months under Powell after he refused to lower interest rates.

“Chair Powell will be leaving next May. We will probably be announcing the new nominee [in] either December, January. From that point on, the markets will be listening to the future Fed chair. Remember, it’s a committee, Laura,” Bessent said. “So it’s the committee that is showing this, I call it, it used to be TDS, was Trump derangement syndrome.”

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“Now it’s tariff derangement syndrome. The orthodox economics profession has once again embarrassed themselves,” Bessent added. “I can’t remember, I think 358 Ph.D. economists at the Fed. Seems like now the Fed’s become a universal basic income program for them because they’re never right, and their projections are off.”

Trump announced a sweeping list of reciprocal tariffs in April. Powell voiced concerns just days later about the potential impact on the economy. Speculation circulated that the president would oust him over interest rates remaining the same. Trump denied the rumors and said he had “no intention” of replacing Powell.

By June, the Fed announced during its fourth meeting of 2025 that it would keep its target range at 4.25% to 4.5%, despite calls from Trump to lower the rates. During a panel on July 1, Powell said the U.S. central bank would have lowered rates by now if Trump had not imposed the tariffs.

Trump on July 2 called for Powell to resign, reposting a Bloomberg article highlighting that the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency had urged Congress to investigate Powell. Soon after, Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna announced on X that she is officially referring Powell to the Department of Justice to investigate alleged perjury tied to the Fed’s $2 billion headquarters renovation project.

Powell’s term is expected to run through May 15. He has repeatedly said he will not step aside any sooner, according to Reuters.

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