Kevin Hassett, a top contender for President Donald Trump’s pick for Fed chairs, said Trump’s vote would have no weight in the central bank’s rate decisions during his presidency.
“[He] has very strong and well-reasoned views about what we should do,” Hassett, Trump’s top White House economic adviser, said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“But at the end of the day, the Fed’s job is to be independent and to work with the group of people that are on the board, the FOMC, to create a group consensus on where interest rates should be,” he added.
Hassett’s remarks follow Trump’s recent comment that he should be able to weigh in on the Fed’s interest rate decisions.
Hassett is widely seen as a dovish candidate who is likely to align with Trump’s demands for aggressive rate cuts to bolster economic growth. His advocacy of looser monetary policy, including recent support for major cuts, positions him to tilt the Fed toward prioritizing economic expansion over inflation control.
Bitcoin bulls are feeding hopes for interest rate cuts from the Fed to maintain a bullish price path in the coming months.
At the time of writing, Hassett leads Polymarket odds at 52% for the Fed chair, topping former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh’s 40%. Warsh’s approval rating has risen sharply from 13% since Trump met with him last week. Powell’s term is expected to end. 15 May.
