Scott Bessent wants the era of Fed-watching to end: He says it’s time they ‘move back into the background’ and make fewer speeches

United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (L) and Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States Jerome Powell (R). (Credit: Artur Widak—NurPhoto/Getty Images)

There have rarely been years when the Federal Reserve has been so carefully watched by the White House, investors, analysts, and the media, as this one. In 2025, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) found itself in a one-sided battle with the Oval Office, with President Trump aggressively lobbying for the base rate to be lowered. (This, of course, came after aggressive lobbying from Trump before the election for the base rate not to be lowered.)

It was a battle that speculators couldn’t look away from, even if it made markets nervous to see politics seeping into the Fed’s corridors (literally—Trump’s visit to the Fed in July was only the fourth in U.S. history of the independent central bank).