A decision on a nominee to head the Federal Reserve is coming soon, President Trump said Friday.
Trump told reporters outside the Oval Office he would settle on a candidate in the next “two to three weeks.”
Trump has to decide who will helm the central bank in February, after Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s term runs out.
He has promised decisions in a two-week timeframe several times before, only to see the self-imposed deadlines come and go without action.
After attacking Yellen on the campaign trail as a partisan Democrat, Trump has since warmed to her and suggested that he could renominate her.
He also has said that his economic adviser, former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn, could be a candidate. But their relationship has cooled following Cohn’s critical remarks about Trump’s equivocations on white nationalists after the Charlottesville, Va., protests.
This week, Trump met with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, appointed by President George W. Bush, to interview about the job., according to the Wall Street Journal. He also met with current Governor Jerome Powell, who previously worked in private equity and in the George H.W. Bush Treasury.
With the Fed’s vice president, Stanley Fischer, stepping down this month, Trump is faced with the task of reshaping the central bank in short order.
This month, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the nomination of one of his candidates, Randal Quarles. If confirmed, Quarles would serve as the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, a critical position for carrying out Trump’s agenda of lessening the burden of financial regulations.
