OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
2:29 PM – Friday, January 30, 2026
President Donald Trump announced that he will choose his nominee to chair the Federal Reserve “sometime next week,” replacing Jerome Powell, the current chairman he has frequently clashed with over the past year.
“We are going to be announcing the head of the Fed, who that will be,” Trump said at his monthly Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday. “It will be a person that will, I think, do a good job. We’re paying far too much interest in the Fed. The Fed rate is too high, unacceptably high.”
Trump noted that he picked a group of four finalists for the position: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, former Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Kevin Warsh, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder and Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller.
Trump slammed Powell in a Truth Social post, blaming him for the Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain a 3.5%-3.75% interest rate in a 10-2 vote, which he claimed ultimately harmed the country’s national security.
“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell again refused to cut interest rates, even though he has absolutely no reason to keep them so high. He is hurting our Country, and its National Security. We should have a substantially lower rate now that even this moron admits inflation is no longer a problem or threat. He is costing America Hundreds of Billions of Dollar a year in totally unnecessary and uncalled for INTEREST EXPENSE.” Trump wrote.
Powell’s term ends in May, but his tenure as a board member runs through 2028. Trump originally appointed Powell as chairman of the seven-member board in 2017. Former President Joe Biden nominated him for a second four-year term in 2021, which Congress confirmed in 2022.
During his first year back in the White House, Trump has continuously criticized Powell over interest rate policy and suggested he might seek a new Fed chairman who aligns more closely with his economic agenda.
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