President Donald Trump has unleashed on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell as an Apprentice-style showdown for a replacement is unfolding in the background.
“ANYBODY BUT ‘TOO LATE,’” Trump wrote in a post Wednesday morning, using his favored nickname for Powell. Trump has raged at him since April for refusing to lower interest rates, arguing that Powell is waiting too long.
“‘Too Late’ is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs,” Trump wrote in another post, demanding: “LOWER THE RATE!!!”
While the president’s feud airs in public, Trump is staging a behind-the-scenes competition between two men named Kevin to become the next Fed chair, harking back to his reality star days.
The contenders are frontrunner Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, and emergent challenger Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Hassett previously said he wasn’t interested in the job, but he has met with Trump about it at least twice in June, inside sources told the Journal. Now, he’s saying that he would take on the role if it was offered to him.
Warsh, on the other hand, has a strong resumé and was a candidate for Fed chair eight years ago, when Trump named Powell.
However, people close to the president worry that Warsh, who isn’t as close an ally of Trump’s, might not heed the president’s call for dramatic rate cuts. The Journal reported that Warsh is considering traveling to Washington, D.C., this month to meet about the position.
Both men have echoed Trump’s criticism of Powell since over the last few weeks.
Hassett said in a June interview that Powell is doing “whatever [Democratic Sen.] Elizabeth Warren wants him to.”
Warsh told Fox Business earlier this week that he has “some sympathy” for Trump’s complaints against Powell, whom he accused of “bad economic policies.”
On his reality show, The Apprentice, Trump presided over similar situations: two people battling for his favor—and a job. Trump hosted the show for 14 seasons, from 2004 until he was fired in 2015. Each episode ended with Trump telling a contestant, “You’re fired!”
The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
“President Trump has been clear about the need for the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy to complement the Administration’s pro-growth agenda,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Journal. “He will continue to nominate the most qualified individuals who can best serve the American people.”
Hassett, 63, is a former Columbia University economics professor who is currently serving as the director of Trump’s National Economic Council. He also advised Trump in his first term.
Between Trump’s White House stints, Hassett worked for the private equity firm founded by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Warsh, 55, is a former Morgan Stanley banker. He was appointed to the Fed’s board in 2006 by George W. Bush, serving until 2011. Warsh is married to the daughter of billionaire cosmetics mogul, Ronald Lauder, a classmate of Trump’s at the University of Pennsylvania.
Asked about Warsh’s candidacy to replace Powell last month, Trump said that Warsh is “very highly thought of.”
Another name in the mix for Fed chair is Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent—even though he’s leading the search process for the role.
Bessent has ramped up his criticism of the Fed since the search has gone underway. “I guess this tariff derangement syndrome happens even over at the Fed,” he said on Fox News this month.
Trump’s feud with Powell took off in April after he launched his market-roiling tariff policy. He has called the Fed chair a “numbskull” and a “major loser” for his refusal to acquiesce.
The Fed has said it “will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.”
