Trump to name Fed chair nominee Friday

Jan. 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said he will name his pick for the new Federal Reserve chair on Friday, following months of a very public pressure campaign to force its present chief, Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates.

Asked about his potential Fed chair pick by reporters Thursday night from the red carpet for the premiere of Melania, a documentary about his wife, Melania Trump, the president said, “I’ll be announcing that tomorrow.”

Trump wouldn’t go into details about how he decided, other than to say his choice is “an outstanding person and a person that won’t be too surprising to people.”

“A lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago,” he said. “It’s going to be somebody that is very respected, somebody that’s known to everybody in the financial world, and I think it’s going to be a very good choice.”

The Federal Reserve is led by a seven-member Board of Governors. By law, the president nominates the chair to lead the central bank for a four-year term. The appointment is subject to Senate approval.

The current chair, Jerome Powell, was picked by Trump during his first administration and nominated again for a four-year term by President Joe Biden in May 2022.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has publicly feuded with Powell over the federal funds rate, seeking to influence the chair to lower it through insults and threats.

Powell has cut the rate three times since Trump took office again, dropping the central bank’s lending rate by 175 points, or 1.75%.

After Powell announced on Thursday that the rate would stand pat at between 3.5% and 3.75%, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to accuse the veteran banker of “hurting our Country.”

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell again refused to cut interest rates, even though he has absolutely no reason to keep them so high,” Trump said, calling Powell a “moron.”

“He is costing America Hundreds of Billions of Dollar a year in totally unnecessary and uncalled for INTEREST EXPENSE.”

Trump first announced that he would replace Powell at the end of his term in July. In early September, Trump told reporters at the White House that he’d whittled down a shortlist of candidates to three after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent informed the president he didn’t want it.