{"id":39267,"date":"2025-12-16T18:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=39267"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:31:19","slug":"citadel-chief-ken-griffin-says-white-house-must-distance-itself-from-fed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=39267","title":{"rendered":"Citadel chief Ken Griffin says White House must \u2018distance\u2019 itself from Fed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=9b3bb8bb-5e4a-49d5-ab78-2e07aaea2ebb&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Citadel\u2019s chief executive Ken Griffin has called for Donald Trump to create \u201cdistance\u201d between the Federal Reserve and the White House, highlighting investor angst that the US president will pick a close ally to chair the central bank. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most important move the president and the incoming Fed chairman can make\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009is to create distance between the White House and the Fed,\u201d the billionaire hedge fund manager said on Tuesday when asked whether Kevin Hassett, a White House economic adviser, should lead the Fed. <\/p>\n<p>Griffin\u2019s comments at an event in Paris come as the race to nominate a Fed chair to replace Jay Powell next May has reached its climax. <\/p>\n<p>Hassett, who has served in both Trump administrations, had emerged as a frontrunner in the race to succeed Powell.<\/p>\n<p>But his odds have fallen in recent days amid signs that the US president is hearing out concerns from senior figures on Wall Street that the White House economist would not be independent enough from Trump and would pander to the president\u2019s wishes to slash <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/us-interest-rates\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">interest rates<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Hassett, who has served in both Trump administrations, has said the Fed needs to be able to set interest rates free from political pressure. But he also told CNBC on Tuesday that if the president has a good idea on economic policy, he would pass it on to the central bank\u2019s rate-setting board. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president is a seasoned observer of the economy,\u201d Hassett said. <\/p>\n<p>JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon signalled last week that he believed Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor who served as a conduit between the US central bank and Wall Street during the 2008 financial crisis, would be a strong pick. <\/p>\n<div id=\"vweodbha\" class=\"n-content-layout\" data-component=\"flourish\" data-component-id=\"26848081\" data-component-type=\"flourish-in-article\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-picture n-content-layout__container\"><a href=\"#26848081\"><picture data-asset-type=\"flourish\" data-flourish-id=\"26848081\" data-flourish-type=\"visualisation\">\n<div id=\"26848081\" class=\"cp-message o-message o-message--inform o-message--notice\" data-o-component=\"o-message\">\n<div class=\"o-message__container\">\n<div class=\"o-message__content\">\n<p class=\"o-message__content-main\">Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/7f16d318-34d2-4246-a054-b477860b93ac\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Griffin<\/a> on Tuesday declined to back any one candidate, saying he did not think \u201cthrowing\u201d his choice in the mix \u201chelps to add anything to the argument or decision at hand\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president will hopefully make a decision from the perspective of who will give the global markets and the American investment public and the consumer the greatest peace of mind that we will manage inflation in America,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Griffin, who founded one of the world\u2019s biggest hedge funds, Citadel, and market makers, Citadel Securities, emerged as a vocal critic of Trump\u2019s tariff policies last year before they were officially put in place in April.<\/p>\n<p>The hedge fund manager has historically been an influential donor to Republican candidates, but stopped short of endorsing Trump for the presidency in last year\u2019s election. <\/p>\n<p>Griffin, who was among the roughly dozen Wall Street chiefs who attended an exclusive dinner at the White House last month, said Trump was very attentive to suggestions from business leaders during a recent meeting on how to tackle persistent affordability issues that have left US voters increasingly frustrated. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s ironic how the tables have turned,\u201d he said, pointing to polling that indicates Democratic prospects have improved dramatically for next year\u2019s midterm elections, adding that Republicans were struggling with the \u201cpro-inflationary\u201d reality of many of their policies. <\/p>\n<p>The warnings on Fed independence come after the Financial Times recently reported that bond investors had voiced their concerns over Hassett securing the nomination to the Treasury department. <\/p>\n<p>Trump interviewed Warsh last Wednesday and said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he and Hassett were now neck and neck. Betting markets have since repriced Hassett\u2019s chances, showing the White House economic adviser in a dead heat with Warsh.<\/p>\n<p>The US president claimed both candidates would cut interest rates \u2014 which he insists should be as low as 1 per cent, despite inflation still running above the central bank\u2019s 2 per cent goal. <\/p>\n<p>The Fed has cut borrowing costs three times so far this year, with last week\u2019s quarter-point move lowering the benchmark federal funds target range to a three-year low of 3.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent. <\/p>\n<p>Just one voter on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee \u2014 Fed governor and Trump ally Stephen Miran \u2014 backed a half-point cut. <\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Malcolm Moore in Paris. Data visualisation by Oliver Roeder in New York<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9b3bb8bb-5e4a-49d5-ab78-2e07aaea2ebb\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}