Betting markets are heating up over who might replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as President Donald Trump escalates his campaign to reshape the central bank’s leadership.
On Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated prediction platform, traders are ramping up bets on who Trump will nominate next to lead the world’s most powerful central bank.
Powell’s term is set to end in May 2026, yet speculators currently foresee nearly a 1-in-4 chance that Trump will remove him before year’s end, despite legal and institutional hurdles.
Trump Publicly Attacks Powell Over Interest-Rate Policy
The surge in speculation follows a week of political fireworks, where Trump not only called for “preemptive” interest rate cuts but also accused Powell of past political favoritism.
On Monday, the president blasted Powell on Truth Social. “There can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOWMr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”
Powell has always been ‘Too Late,’ except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected,” Trump said.
The feud has triggered concerns about central bank independence, with Trump’s economic …