US president is reviewing candidates to replace outgoing Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, who disagreed with Trump on interest rate cuts.
Published On 24 Dec 2025
United States President Donald Trump has said that he expects the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low and never “disagree” with him.
Trump made his remarks on Tuesday as interviewing was under way for candidates to replace outgoing Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell.
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“I want my new Fed Chairman to lower Interest Rates if the Market is doing well, not destroy the Market for no reason whatsoever,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform.
“The United States should be rewarded for SUCCESS, not brought down by it. Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!”
Since returning to office in February, Trump has constantly pressured the Federal Reserve – the central bank of the US – to cut interest rates in a bid to boost economic growth across the US economy.
Trump also threatened to dismiss Fed chief Powell for not following his directive on cutting interest rates, calling him a “numbskull” and “major loser” in public. The president’s comments about Powell’s replacement have stoked fears about the future independence of the Fed from political interference – a longstanding convention in the US.
The Fed has already cut its benchmark interest rate three times this year, landing at 3.5 to 3.75 percent in mid-December. But Trump has previously suggested it should be as low as 1 percent.
Lower interest rates make it cheaper to borrow money and encourage spending, but moving too quickly to cut rates or cutting them too sharply raises the risk of inflation.
Michael Sandel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital and a Federal Reserve historian, told Al Jazeera that Trump was sending a clear message to the next chairman of the Fed.
“Obviously, the statement in the final weeks of Powell’s successor selection focuses attention on which of the finalists will do what Trump wants. Or put another way, who can convince Trump that their way is in his best interest,” Sandel said.
Top candidates to replace Powell include Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council; Kevin Warsh, a financier and former Fed governor; and Christopher Waller, a current Fed governor, according to the CNBC news outlet.
Hassett said this week that the Fed should continue to cut interest rates, even as recent economic indicators show that the US economy is performing better than many analysts previously thought.
The US Commerce Department this week posted 4.3 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for July to September, higher than the 3.2 percent growth predicted for the third quarter of 2025 by Dow Jones analysts, according to CNBC.
Much of that growth was fuelled by consumer spending and exports, according to the Bureau of Economic Affairs.
Sandel told Al Jazeera that Hassett looked like the strongest candidate due to his past working relationship with Trump.
“Of the finalists, my money’s on Kevin Hassett, who’s closest to Trump and as NEC chair, probably the last one in the room and the one who can make his case best,” he said.
Hassett also has the “rare” skill of being able to “teach Trump economics and evangelise Trump’s own inimitable ideas”, he added.
