Trump says he'll announce Fed chair pick on Friday morning

Kate Sullivan, Bloomberg News on Jan 29, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would be announcing his pick for a nominee to chair the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, signaling an end to a months-long process that has spurred speculation over the future of the world’s most powerful central bank.

Trump, asked at an event Thursday evening in Washington when he would make his decision known, responded: “Tomorrow morning.”

Trump is said to be considering four candidates on his shortlist: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, former Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Inc. executive Rick Rieder.

Trump has openly sought to shape the Fed’s rate policy through his appointments in an effort to find someone broadly acceptable to markets who’ll also share his inclination to cut rates further and faster.

The president teased his announcement without giving the name away, saying the pick won’t be too surprising and will be someone known to everyone in the financial world. “A lot of people think this is somebody that could’ve been there a few years ago,” he said.

Benchmark Treasury yields pushed higher in Asia trading Friday after being relatively subdued this week despite a jump in volatility in other markets. A surge of interest in Warsh and away from Rieder on prediction market platform Polymarket suggested traders were betting on the more hawkish candidate prevailing.

The selection process is being overseen by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who helped the president winnow down a larger field of potential candidates.

The new timeline comes just hours after the president had said he intended to reveal his pick next week and reiterated his expectation that the next leader of the central bank would lower interest rates.

Trump’s pick may face a complicated path to confirmation in the U.S. Senate. A key senator, Republican Thom Tillis, who sits on the Banking Committee, has vowed to block any of Trump’s Fed nominees until the U.S. Justice Department resolves a probe into the central bank’s renovation of its headquarters.

That investigation, which also centers around current chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress, has further intensified worries about threats to the Fed’s independence.

Trump’s announcement of his pick will shift the president’s long fight with the Fed over its rate-setting policies to a new stage. The president and allies have waged a months-long pressure campaign on Powell to more aggressively lower borrowing costs.

“We’re paying far too much interest in the Fed,” Trump said Thursday. “We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world. They should be two points and even three points lower.”

The Fed on Wednesday decided to leave rates unchanged followed three straight reductions in the final months of 2025.

(Natalie Choy, Edward Bolingbroke and Matthew Burgess contributed to this report.)