Fed Gov. Christopher Waller told CNBC that he thought his interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went “well.”
“I mean, it was a lot of discussion about various aspects of talking about various speeches I’ve given my points of view, they’ve kind of wanted to follow up on tales of it,” Wall said in October. “I just thought it was great. I mean, it was really there was nothing political about it. There was nothing. It was all serious economic discussion. So that’s why I thought it was brilliant.”
Bessent, himself once a contender to replace Powell, is leading the interview process to narrow Trump’s shortlist.
Waller, a longtime regional Fed official, was seen as a convention pick when Trump nominated him to the central bank in 2019. Simultaneously, Trump also nominated Judy Shelton, a former campaign advisor and a Fed critic. The fight over Shelton’s nomination soon spilled over onto Waller’s.
In December 2020, the Senate confirmed Waller 48-47, the narrowest margin for any Fed governor since 1980, per The New York Times.
In July, Waller joined Gov. Michelle Bowman (another Trump first-term pick) in opposing the Fed’s decision not to cut interest rates, the first dual dissent in more than 30 years.
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