Trump says he'll announce next Fed chair 'early next year'

• Trump calls White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett 'potential Fed chair'

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will probably announce his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair early next year.

“We’ll be announcing somebody, probably early next year, for the new chairman of the Fed,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

The person in charge of the selection process, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said earlier that the choice might be made public before Christmas.

Without providing any other information, the president told reporters Sunday that he knew who he would nominate.

Trump for months has urged the Fed to cut interest rates and said that picking a successor to Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed Chair expires in May 2026, would give him his biggest chance yet to reform the organization.

He has blasted Powell as being too hesitant and timid in seeking cuts and hinted that he expects his replacement to act more strongly to decrease rates.

Trump echoed those criticisms Tuesday, calling Powell a “stubborn ox, who probably doesn’t like your president.” Powell may stay on the board for two more years as a governor, although his tenure as chair expires next year.

Trump also said that they were examining 10 possible candidates for the Fed chair and that many people, including Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, were involved in the process.

"I think we probably looked at 10, and we have it down to one," he said.

Later, he called White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett a "potential Fed chair."

"I guess a potential Fed chair is here too. Am I allowed to say that? Potential. He's a respected person, that I can tell you. Thank you, Kevin," Trump said later Tuesday.

The 63-year-old Hassett, who presided over the White House's Council of Economic Advisers during Trump's first term, has supported Trump's calls for lower interest rates and broad import tariffs.

Bessent said last month that five candidates were being considered for the chair -- Hassett, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Fed Board Member Christopher Waller, former Fed Board Member Kevin Warsh, and Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of Global Fixed Income at asset management firm BlackRock.

- Dividends to be paid from tariff revenues

Trump also said that next year will be "the largest tax refund season ever," announcing that refunds will be issued from tariffs.

"Because we have taken in trillions of dollars, and we are going to be giving a nice dividend to the people," he said.

Emphasizing that they have generated a lot of revenue, he expressed his belief that "in the not-too-distant future," the public will not even pay income taxes.