Trump says he has picked the next Federal Reserve chair

President Donald Trump says he has decided who he wants to lead the Federal Reserve — we just don’t know who it is yet.

Trump, who is expected to announce his preferred chair before the end of the year, told reporters Sunday: “I know who I am going to pick, yeah.” When asked who it was he added: “I’m not telling you. We’ll be announcing it.”

Whoever gets the president’s nomination will be expected to push for interest more rate cuts, and more quickly, than current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May. Trump has unloaded an onslaught of attacks against Powell for the past five months, arguing that the Fed has been too cautious in lowering rates and juicing economic growth. 

Kevin Hassett, the White House’s National Economic Council Director, is widely seen as the front-runner. Hassett played down speculation about the job Sunday, but told Fox News he would be happy to take it if called upon.

He also pointed to positive market reaction about his potential candidacy last week as evidence that investors won't worry about him being too close to the president, and therefore weakening the Fed’s independence.

“Once it became clear that the president's getting closer to make a decision, the markets really celebrated, interest rates went down, we had one of our best treasury auctions ever,” Hassett said.

“The market expects that there's going to be a new person at the Fed, and they expect that President Trump's going to pick a new one," he added. "And if he picks me, I'd be happy to serve.”

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump could name the new chair before Christmas. Bessent is leading the interview process, with five names thought to be left in the hat: Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman; ex-Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, Blackrock investment executive Rick Rieder, and Hassett.

The next Fed decision on rates is scheduled for Dec. 10, the last one of the year. Fed officials will be weighing whether to cut borrowing costs a third time this year or sit still.

The central bank is still grappling with government shutdown-related fallout, since the Bureau of Labor Statistics was forced to postpone key data releases detailing November's inflation and employment statuses until mid-December.

—Joseph Zeballos-Roig contributed to this article.