Bessent is not top Fed candidate but ‘very good,’ Trump says

Bessent also said that a “formal process” to find a successor to Powell had started.

President Donald Trump said Scott Bessent was an option to replace Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve but suggested the Treasury secretary was not the leading candidate because of his success in his current role.

“He’s an option and he’s very good,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked directly about Bessent being a potential successor.

Asked by a reporter whether Bessent was the top option, Trump responded, “Well, he’s not, because I like the job he’s doing.”

Trump lambasted Powell over renovations at the central bank that the president and his allies have seized on, arguing that the work has been plagued by cost overruns and is exorbitantly lavish for a government office building. Trump suggested that the renovation costs were “pretty disgraceful.”

Asked if it was a fireable offense, Trump responded “I think it sort of is,” but stopped short of saying he planned to push out the Fed chief over the flap.

“I think he’s a total stiff, but the one thing I didn’t see him as is the guy that needed a palace to live in,” Trump said.

Powell has called media reports about the renovations inaccurate but earlier this week made a formal request for the bank’s inspector general to review the renovation.

The president has kept up pressure on Powell to lower interest rates, which the central bank has held steady this year.

Trump’s comments came hours after Bessent said in an interview on Bloomberg Television that Powell should step down from the bank’s board when his term as chair ends in May 2026, adding that markets would react poorly to the idea of a shadow Fed chief.

“There’s been a lot of talk of a shadow Fed chair causing confusion in advance of his or her nomination. And I can tell you, I think it’d be very confusing for the market for a former Fed chair to stay on,” Bessent said.

Powell’s term as a Fed governor doesn’t end until January 2028, leaving it possible for him to remain at the central bank — and to participate in monetary policymaking — even after his tenure as the chair comes up next May.

Bessent also said that a “formal process” to find a successor to Powell had started.

Asked whether Trump has asked Bessent himself to serve as Fed chair, the Treasury chief noted that he was “part of the decision-making process” and said it was “President Trump’s decision, and it will move at his speed.”