President Trump said Tuesday that he plans to wait until early 2026 to name his pick to lead the Federal Reserve.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in May, and Mr. Trump recently said he picked a successor, though he is not saying who it will be.
“We’ll be announcing somebody probably early next year for the new chairman of the Fed,” Mr. Trump said at a Cabinet meeting.
The president is eager to move on from Mr. Powell, saying the current chair has been too reluctant to cut interest rates.
“We have a guy that’s just a stubborn ox. He probably doesn’t like your president, your favorite president,” Mr. Trump said.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is widely seen as a leading contender to lead the central bank.
Administration officials previously said the other final candidates were current Fed Board members Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Inc. executive Rick Rieder.
“I think we probably looked at 10 and we have it down to one,” Mr. Trump said.
Asked if he could divulge the nominee’s name, Mr. Trump said: “No,” eliciting laughter from the room.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday his initial preference was to tap Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“I talked to Scott about taking the job, but he doesn’t want it,” Mr. Trump said.
The Fed is expected to cut interest rates for a third successive time at its December meeting to jumpstart U.S. hiring, which has been sluggish. Some members of the Fed remain worried about stubborn inflation, which argues against a cut.
Mr. Trump said he inherited massive inflation and is working to bring down prices. He said he is tired of hearing Democrats hammer on “affordability.”
“The word ‘affordability’ is a con job by the Democrats,” Mr. Trump said. “Affordability. They just say the word. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”
The president says the economy will get moving in the new year as his agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and tariffs takes hold.
Mr. Bessent said capital expenditures on U.S. factories will result in jobs and that tax filers should expect bigger refunds from provisions in the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“The best is yet to come,” Mr. Bessent said.
Mr. Trump says tariffs, or duties on foreign goods brought to U.S. markets, are bringing in so much money that he plans to give Americans a dividend payment.
However, a large chunk of his tariff plan is under threat by a legal case before the Supreme Court. Key justices seemed skeptical of Mr. Trump’s use of a 1977 economic-powers law to impose blanket tariffs on other countries, hinting it might have usurped Congress’s taxing powers.
Administration lawyers say the revenue is incidental to Mr. Trump’s attempts to regulate foreign trade, though the president continues to highlight the payments.
“The money we’re taking in is so great, it’s so enormous, that you’re not going to have income tax to pay,” Mr. Trump said.
