Bessent says he'll present Trump with Fed chair options in December

[President Trump Meets With Visiting Argentine President Milei At The White House]
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images News

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that he would give President Donald Trump in December a list of three or four candidates to lead the Federal Reserve.

In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said he would present Trump with the Fed chair options "likely sometime after Thanksgiving, in December," for him to interview.

The list has been narrowed to five candidates -- Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock (BLK [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BLK]) fixed-income executive Rick Rieder, from 11, Bessent said, CNBC has previously reported.

Bessent has been overseeing the effort to find a successor to Fed boss Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Trump has repeatedly bashed Powell for not cutting interest rates fast enough.

Bessent's remarks [https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/10/15/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent.html] come as Trump wants to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud. Arguments have been scheduled by the Supreme Court for January. And SCOTUS has said Cook can stay on as the case proceeds.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Treasury secretary said that Trump is planning to establish [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4504363-trump-administration-to-set-price-floors-to-combat-china-s-market-manipulation] price floors across various industries to counter market manipulation by China, emphasizing that the country has leveraged its global dominance in refining and processing rare earth minerals to drive foreign competitors out of business over the past two decades by slashing prices.

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