President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said he would take the job as Federal Reserve chair if the president offered it to him.
“We’ve had that discussion,” Hassett said at an event Wednesday hosted by The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
Hassett is among the five finalists on Trump’s short list to lead the nation’s central bank, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced last month. Trump said Hassett was among the top three candidates in September.
Hassett said that he would stay in his position directing the National Economic Council if Trump did not select him for Fed chair. “If he decides that that’s the right choice for me,” he added.
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If he is picked, however, Hassett said he “could be ready to get to work right away” because he previously spent five years at the Fed and knows the economists leading the bank now.
“[I] have seen what’s good and bad about the way the Fed people think, and there’s a lot of bad,” Hassett said.
Trump has long been publicly critical of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, calling on him to lower interest rates. The president has also implied that Powell would resign early if he asked him, something Powell has previously said he would not do.
Hassett emphasized that the Senate confirmation process for a new Fed chair could be a long, drawn-out process when Powell steps down. Hassett said he expects Powell will stay on through May, when his term ends.
Hassett served in the first Trump administration as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 through 2019. He worked for the private equity firm run by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, before joining the National Economic Council this year.
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