Who is Kevin Hassett? The rumored Fed pick says inflation is ‘way down,’ sees ‘political bias’ in jobs data, and suggested firing Powell over a renovation

members of the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. Hassett said that Chinese actions on trade in the last few weeks have been "unacceptable," but there has been "sort of a thawing" in US-China relations in recent days as conversations (Credit: Francis Chung—Politico/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

The National Economic Council chief Kevin Hassett is suddenly the name to beat in the race to replace Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve. Prediction markets are leaning his way; President Donald Trump cheekily hinted that he “knows who he’s going to pick”; and the White House said it is aiming for a Christmas reveal. But among the economists and former colleagues who’ve known him for years, reactions range from enthusiastic to deeply uneasy.

To his supporters, Hassett is a brilliant policy architect and, as longtime ally and former Trump advisor Stephen Moore puts it, a “hard money guy” who will defend the dollar. To some of his former peers, however, he has morphed into something far more concerning as an advisor to the president: a political loyalist willing to sacrifice institutional independence—and objective truth—to please his boss.