Donald Trump has repeatedly hinted at his top pick for Jerome Powell’s replacement for federal chair in May 2026. Kevin Hassett is currently director of Trump’s National Economic Council and served as George W. Bush’s economic advisor.
He is also bullish on bitcoin (BTC). He owned $1-5 million worth of Coinbase stock as of this summer.
At his Wednesday press conference about the US government buying billions of dollars worth of the S&P 500 under the guise of donating $1,000 to children, Trump repeated his appreciation for Hassett, who was in attendance.
“I want to thank you all for being here. It’s a great group,” Trump said from the stage.
“And I guess a potential Fed Chair is here too, I don’t know, are we allowed to say that? Potential. He’s a respected person, that I can tell you. Thank you, Kevin.”
Bets on Hassett receiving Trump’s nomination are priced at 70% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi.
Hassett will lower interest rates to pump crypto
Bitwise analyst Juan Leon called Hassett an “aggressive dove,” immediately willing to lower the federal funds rate in line with Trump’s wishes. Obviously, lower interest rates reduce the cost of borrowing across the economy, boosting borrowing and investments in risk assets like BTC.
Hassett has praised BTC, claiming that crypto will “rewrite the rules of finance.” He also led a White House digital asset working group on crypto regulation.
In many ways, he is a polar opposite of the current Fed Chair, Powell.
Read more: Crypto wants Trump to replace Jerome Powell with a pro-stimulus Fed chair
Maybe not, exactly, the best track record
Hassett’s bullishness on crypto isn’t necessarily a good thing. He’s predicted many things that failed to rally, including in his book from September 1999 that called for the Dow Jones industrial average to rally about 250% by 2010.
The book’s title said it all: “Dow 36,000.”
However, it didn’t rally anywhere close to 36,000 by 2010. A book review in Fortune magazine called it the “most spectacularly wrong investing book ever.”
Five years after publication, the book was reselling for pennies on Amazon.
Even Hassett had to admit that he got his prediction wrong. In 2010, he publicly apologized and donated to the Salvation Army to memorialize his losing bet.
Jerome Powell is intending to step down as chairman of the US Federal Reserve in May 2026, but he might stay on its board of governors in a non-chairman role.
If he wants to keep working, his term as a board member runs through January 2028.
Hassett is 63 years old and worth at least $7.6 million. Powell is 72 years old and personally worth tens or low hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Source: https://protos.com/trump-hints-at-kevin-hassett-as-top-pick-for-federal-chair/
