Republicans like Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, and they’d support him as chair of the Federal Reserve. Just maybe not at the same time.
As President Donald Trump criticized current Fed Chair Jerome Powell yet again on Tuesday for not cutting interest rates, Republicans cautioned the president to take his time before announcing who could replace Powell next year — whether that’s Bessent or someone else.
Most crucially for the administration, though, two senior GOP senators on key fiscal committees aired worries about one person holding both the Treasury job and the Fed chairmanship. That idea, which the White House dismissed after Bloomberg reported this month that Trump’s advisers had discussed it with him, would break nearly a century of precedent and spark questions about its effect on the central bank’s independence.
“I just don’t think it would be a good idea,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican who serves on the Banking Committee with jurisdiction over Fed nominees, told Semafor. “When you’re chair of the Federal Reserve, you’re independent. You can’t have one foot in the independence camp and another foot in the political camp.”
Senate Republicans have significant sway over the process: They would confirm any new nominee to replace Powell, whose term as Fed chair expires next year, as well as any potential Bessent replacement at Treasury. They are trying to balance Trump’s distaste for Powell with uncertain economic conditions stemming from the president’s tariff regime, which Bessent is helping to spearhead.
Kennedy said that in-limbo economic conditions created another reason for caution about the Fed chairmanship. Markets fighting to remain upright amid Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs can scarcely afford another source of uncertainty, he said.
“We’re at a critical juncture in this economy,” Kennedy said. “The president is imposing more tariffs; we don’t know the impact that will have on the American economy, or the global economy. I would just be very careful.”
Sen. Thom TIllis, R-N.C., who serves on both the Banking and Finance committees, said that Bessent would “be a very competent Fed chair. I think he’s also a very competent Treasurer. And we can’t clone him.”
It’s “very difficult to deal with monetary policy, the dual mandate of the Fed and all the other things that’s on the Treasurer’s plate,” Tillis added.
On Tuesday, a White House spokesman defended Trump’s comments on Powell, who the president said is “whining like a baby about non-existent inflation.”
“It is President Trump’s First Amendment right as an American citizen and duty as our commander in chief to voice his concerns about flawed policymaking, and that includes monetary policy that’s holding our country’s economic resurgence back,” said Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson.
“President Trump will continue to nominate the most qualified individuals who can best serve the American people.”