Interviews for 11 Federal Reserve Chair candidates begin today—how will Trump choose?

At the beginning of September, the personnel and power landscape surrounding the Federal Reserve continued to evolve rapidly.

On September 3, according to reports, the White House made it clear that it would finalize the next Federal Reserve Chair as soon as possible. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has initiated interviews with 11 candidates, with a series of interviews starting this Friday and continuing for a week.

Meanwhile, there have been increasing personnel and power moves aimed at ensuring a "smooth transition." On one hand, Trump previously dismissed the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), raising market concerns about the independence of official data. On the other hand, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler officially submitted her resignation in early August, making room for a new governor. The newly attending Fed Governor, former Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Stephen Miran, was nominated by Trump and appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on September 4 local time. In her written testimony, Miran emphasized "monetary policy independence," stating that "maintaining independence" would be the core of her confirmation process. The public expects her confirmation process to proceed very quickly.

With more and more moves being made, the market is shrouded in uncertainty, and the question of who will become the next Fed Chair has become the focus of market attention.

Who are the 11 candidates for Fed Chair?

According to Fed appointment rules, the Chair must be a current governor. The current Chair, Jerome Powell, will see his chairmanship end in May 2026, while his term as governor lasts until January 2028. If he chooses to remain as a governor after stepping down as Chair, Trump's options for appointing a new Chair in the future will be limited. The current list of 11 core candidates covers elite leaders from various fields, including "Fed establishment figures, former officials, and Wall Street practitioners."

Christopher Waller

Christopher Waller is the former Director of Research at the St. Louis Fed, with a strong academic background and practical policy experience. Insiders and prediction markets consider him the most popular candidate. He is known for his "data-driven but relatively flexible" style and has recently publicly supported an early rate cut, favoring a shift as soon as inflationary pressures ease. His series of speeches on stablecoins are clear and coherent, advocating for private sector-led innovation under legislative and reserve regulatory frameworks.

He was also personally nominated by Trump during his first term. As a "rule-savvy, dovish" current governor, he may be Trump's most trusted successor.

Michelle Bowman

Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman is regarded as a representative of "hawkish regulators." As one of the youngest members of the Fed Board, she is also the toughest female hawk.

In August this year, she proposed allowing Fed staff to hold small amounts of crypto assets to enhance supervisory understanding, sending a more "technologically neutral" signal than before in terms of regulation, but emphasizing price stability as the top priority in monetary policy.

Philip Jefferson

Philip Jefferson, the 63-year-old current Vice Chair of the Fed, is also one of the hot candidates. He has a strong academic and organizational coordination background and is familiar with the Fed's daily operations. As a representative of the "prudent camp," he is relatively cautious in balancing employment and inflation, and is seen as one of the candidates to ensure continuity of the existing framework.

It is worth noting that if he is elected, he would be the first African American Fed Chair in history.

Lorie Logan

Former Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan previously spent a long time at the New York Fed in charge of open market operations. With 23 years of experience at the New York Fed, she is highly skilled in market "tactics and crisis management." She handled both the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic effectively. She is considered the "most trading-savvy" central banker.

Kevin Warsh

Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh is a candidate with both "crisis cycle experience" and "reform agenda." His father-in-law is the heir to Estée Lauder, and he became the youngest governor in Fed history at age 35. After leaving the Fed, he researched monetary policy reform at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

His deep connections in Washington and on Wall Street are also seen as a plus, making him a hot candidate as early as the last round of selection in 2017.

James Bullard

Former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is known for his "early judgment on inflation turning points" and strong communication skills with academia and the market. As early as 2021, he warned the market about inflation risks, but due to his independent personality and views, he has long maintained a relatively "outlier" voting record on the FOMC.

Kevin Hassett

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has a deep relationship with President Trump. Due to his position, he analyzed economic data for Trump almost daily and was even called Trump's "economics professor."

Their policy philosophies align, making him a candidate with a very high "political trust level." His weakness is the lack of experience working inside a central bank.

Marc Sumerlin

Marc Sumerlin previously came from President George W. Bush's economic team, serving as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council at the time. He has proposed the most radical Fed reform plan, advocating for "process reshaping" of the FOMC in terms of communication and institutional structure, making him a "reformer among the establishment."

Larry Lindsey

Larry Lindsey has cross-party experience, having served as Chief Economic Adviser to President George W. Bush and as a Fed Governor under President Clinton. He is highly skilled at policy coordination among the White House, central bank, and markets, and accurately predicted the bursting of the internet bubble. However, at age 70, the market questions whether his thinking may be out of step with modern monetary policy tools.

David Zervos

Jefferies Chief Market Strategist David Zervos belongs to the "market front-line camp," known for his straightforward style, sharp commentary, and unique strategic perspective. He has a keen market sense and maintains close communication with the Fed, having worked at the New York Fed in the 1990s.

Rick Rieder

Rick Rieder, BlackRock's Global Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income, may be the candidate with the most extensive asset management experience in practice. He manages over $4 trillion in assets at BlackRock, having navigated multiple economic crisis cycles.

In recent months, his media statements have clearly leaned toward "easing and a return of risk appetite." If he transitions to a "policymaker," the transferability of his "market experience-policy game" and potential conflict of interest issues will be jointly tested. The market is also concerned about possible "conflicts of interest" that may arise as he transitions from managing funds to policymaking.

Three Crypto-Friendly Candidates?

The most popular candidate, Christopher Waller, also has the most systematic stance on the use cases of "crypto assets—stablecoins—payment innovation."

Waller's scrutiny of crypto assets has been calm to the point of harshness from the start. He once compared most cryptocurrencies to "baseball cards"—without intrinsic value, with prices dependent on a fragile balance of sentiment and confidence. For these highly volatile speculative assets, he insists on "market self-responsibility," arguing that taxpayers should not foot the bill for investment failures.

On the topic of stablecoins, Waller has shown a different side. As early as 2021, when stablecoins were still just an appendage to crypto assets, he saw their potential. He has repeatedly emphasized that "stablecoins can improve payment efficiency, introduce international competition and speed," provided that Congress improves legislation and establishes adequate and transparent reserve and custody rules. In multiple speeches in 2024 and 2025, he has repeatedly urged Congress to legislate to prevent runs and payment system disruptions, so that stablecoins can truly become safe "synthetic dollars."

Waller has always insisted that innovation should be led by the private sector, with the government's role being to "build the highways"—FedNow and similar clearing infrastructure are the lanes, while the vehicles should be driven by the forces of market competition. But he also warns that if non-bank payment institutions and decentralized platforms lack regulation, they may accumulate leverage and create bubbles, ultimately endangering financial stability.

Rick Rieder and David Zervos, on the other hand, differ from Waller. In addition to their theoretical and policy support, they have considerable intersections with the crypto industry at the practical level. Rick Rieder's involvement is more reflected in the funds he manages and industry activities. As BlackRock's Global Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income, he has participated in activities related to projects such as Circle and Bullish, and has also supported some stablecoin and crypto lending initiatives through BlackRock's channels. Public documents show that he has participated multiple times in public or primary market events related to crypto trading platforms, stablecoin issuers, and crypto lending institutions.

David Zervos, on the other hand, has directly participated in and supported multiple crypto-related projects. He has investment or support relationships with eToro (trading platform), Circle Internet Group (issuer of USDC), Bullish (crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, etc.), and Figure Technology Solutions (crypto mortgage platform). In addition, he supported MicroStrategy's bitcoin purchase plan at an early stage, effectively promoting the path of bitcoin corporate allocation.

In summary, Waller represents "institutional friendliness" within the Fed system, while Zervos and Rieder represent "capital friendliness" from Wall Street. If any of them become Chair in the future, the Fed's policy direction may be driven by both "monetary easing + crypto institutionalization," providing a clearer growth path for compliant crypto markets.

Summary

Looking across this list of candidates spanning academia, government, and business, it is clear that the choice of the next Fed Chair is not just about the pace of monetary policy, but directly concerns the institutional direction of global financial markets and the crypto industry. For the market, the identity and background of each candidate signal different future market directions.

At the same time, observers also warn that Trump's frequent moves in nominations and personnel arrangements are causing growing market concerns about the Fed's independence. If the new Chair is seen as an extension of "politicization," it may accelerate the release of easing and risk appetite in the short term, but also increase the medium- and long-term volatility of dollar assets and institutional credibility.

For the crypto industry, regardless of who ultimately takes office, the real benefit does not lie in the "friendly label," but in whether the path to institutionalization can be realized. The key to whether the industry can benefit from policy dividends in the long term lies in how stablecoin legislation, bank integration, and the boundaries of decentralized payments are defined.

In other words, the arrival of a new Chair may be just the prelude; what the market should pay more attention to is whether the system truly moves toward compliance and transparency.