The candidate pool for the Federal Reserve chair has expanded from 4 to 11, covering the White House, the Fed, and Wall Street.

On Wednesday, some media reported that President Donald Trump is currently considering up to 11 candidates for the Chair of the Federal Reserve. This means that the next Chair, who will take office in May 2026, may not necessarily come from the current members of the Federal Reserve or White House economic policy officials. The likelihood that the person who will be impacting the global financial markets comes from a top asset management firm on Wall Street is increasing. According to the media, the list of Federal Reserve Chair nominees currently being considered by Trump includes David Zervos, Chief Market Strategist at Jefferies, Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income at BlackRock, as well as Larry Lindsey, a former Federal Reserve Board member, among eleven candidates. Other candidates include those previously disclosed by Trump, such as Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council, Kevin Warsh, former Federal Reserve Board member, Christopher Waller, current Federal Reserve Board member, as well as Lori Logan, President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, Jim Bullard, former President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, and Mark Sandlin, a former economic advisor from the Bush administration. The specific list of other candidates has not been disclosed. According to media reports last week, Waller has the highest level of recognition in the American economics community among the candidates on the list. Two U.S. government officials reportedly told the media that the current Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, will interview each Federal Reserve Chair candidate. He will then optimize the list of candidates and narrow it down based on the opinions of other White House officials before submitting the narrowed list to President Trump for a final decision. Just one week ago, Trump said he was actively considering four Federal Reserve Chair candidates, and now this list has significantly expanded. Some analysts have said that the expansion of the candidate list shows that Trump's nomination decision is not imminent. The term of current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will end at the end of May 2026, and Trump has already stated that he will not seek reappointment for this six-year term. The media reports that the White House has not provided a specific timetable for making the nomination decision. As the timeline appears to lengthen, the threat of the so-called "shadow Fed Chair" is diminishing in this scenario, the nominated successor to Powell as the Federal Reserve Chair may speak out on policies to weaken Powell's leadership. If the nominee is already a member of the Federal Reserve Board, this could be more disruptive to market expectations of a rate cut. For Wall Street investment firms, they are eager to know the main logic behind the nomination of the Federal Reserve Chair as it will determine who will eventually be the "shadow Fed Chair" before Powell's term ends. The concept of the "shadow Fed Chair" currently popular in the financial industry was proposed by Treasury Secretary Bessent. At the time, Bessent advocated for appointing the next Chair well in advance so that this "acting Chair" could speak out, participate in policy communications and manage expectations during Powell's remaining term, thereby reducing Powell's influence and advancing Trump's economic agenda with a focus on lowering interest rates. Bessent believes that this "shadow Fed Chair" providing forward guidance on monetary policy is enough to make the market "less concerned about Powell's remarks."