Trump Shakes Up Expectations on Who Will Be the Next Fed Chair

0:03President Trump signals that one candidate for the next Fed chair may be out of the running. Think about this as a reality TV show, like The Apprentice, Fed Edition. And so today is just another episode in this drama of who Donald Trump is going to pick for probably the most important personnel job for the rest of his term. Plus, ads are coming to chat GPT as OpenAI looks for fresh revenue. And Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says you can have a good dinner for$3. Our reporters check that out. It's Friday, January 16th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

0:48The contest for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, what you may recall as the battle between the two Kevins, is far from over. Today, President Trump signaled that he may want to keep National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett in his current job. Speaking at a health care event at the White House today, Trump addressed Hassett, who was seated in the front row. You were fantastic on television today. I actually want to keep you where you are if you want to know the truth. Kevin Hassett is so good. I'm saying, wait a minute. If I move him, these Fed guys, certainly the one we have now, they don't talk much.

1:19I would lose you. It's a serious concern to me. Fed Chair Jerome Powell's term is up in May. For more on where the contest to succeed him stands, I'm joined now by WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timoros. So, Nick, at certain points towards the end of last year, Hassett seemed like maybe the frontrunner. Today we hear from Trump. Maybe that's not true anymore. Where does that leave the other Kevin in the running, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh? And how up in the air is this decision? Well, think about this as a reality TV show, like The Apprentice, Fed edition. And so today is just another episode in this drama of who Donald Trump is going to pick for probably the most important personnel job for the rest of his term.

2:01He's been saying he likes the two Kevins, but today he indicated that he thought maybe Kevin Hassett should stay in the White House. And so that naturally would lead everybody to think that it's now the other Kevin, Kevin Warsh, who was a Fed governor 15 years ago in the poll position. But just as six weeks ago, everybody thought this was a done deal for Kevin Hassett, it's Donald Trump. Things can change. Trump always keeps us guessing, and this is no different. Are the other candidates still serious contenders? There was Fed Governor Christopher Waller and BlackRock Executive Rick Reeder. Look, if you've interviewed with Donald Trump for a job and he hasn't picked anybody for the job, even if you're not the frontrunner, you still have a chance because he could change his mind again.

2:52So initially, they had suggested this would be an October-November decision. Most recently, the timing has shifted to the next few weeks. Jay Powell, the current Fed chair, his seat runs until May 15th. You would probably want to do it two or three months ahead of that so that the Senate can have plenty of time to do the confirmation. You write that the criminal investigation into Powell has thrown a twist into the search for his replacement. What are the issues that have come up on Capitol Hill? So there are a lot of people who today, analysts want to connect the backlash to the probe by the DOJ and to the Fed to Hassett falling out of favor.

3:36And the reason for that is pretty simple. Kevin Hassett had been seen as the frontrunner because of his closeness to Trump, that Trump wants someone who's loyal. But the probe creates a problem, which is nobody likes this on Capitol Hill. they think it underscores the idea that Donald Trump is going to compromise the independence of the Fed. And so now there's much more attention being placed by the Senate that's going to have to confirm the next Fed chair on who this person might be. And so the thinking there would be maybe it'll be easier to get somebody confirmed if they have a little bit more distance and can hold up the idea that they'll be independent.

4:13And how does this jostling over who the Fed chair may be affect perceptions of interest rate decisions? Well, it doesn't really change too much with either of the two Kevins. Maybe people think Kevin Hassett would be a little bit more likely than Kevin Warsh to push for rate cuts. But most analysts who are watching this think that at least in 2026, both men would try to secure a couple more interest rate cuts since that's what Donald Trump has made so clear that he wants. The question really then would be about, well, what happens in 2027 and 2028? That was WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timoros.

4:50Thanks, Nick. Thanks for having me.

4:55In other news from the White House today, President Trump will issue a plan next week for letting Americans tap their 401k retirement accounts for a down payment on a home. That's according to Kevin Hassett, who we were just talking about, who was speaking on Fox Business today. It's the latest affordability proposal floated by the White House. Right now, first-time homebuyers who were under age 59 and a half can take up to$10 ,000 out of their IRAs without a penalty, though there are different rules for other retirement accounts. It's not clear how Trump's new plan would be different from existing options.

5:27Turning to foreign affairs, President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries that oppose his efforts to take control of Greenland. He discussed it during that same health care event at the White House this morning. They may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security. so I may do that. Trump said that owning Greenland is vital for America's national security, and the White House hasn't ruled out using force to take the Danish territory. Several European countries have sent small numbers of troops to Greenland this week as part of an effort to deter U.S.

5:57interest in the island. And with a decision on military action apparently on pause, the U.S. has turned to economic pressure on Iran. It placed new sanctions on officials it said were responsible for the crackdown on nationwide protests. Human rights groups estimate that the death toll has risen past 2 ,600 people.

6:19The director of the CIA traveled to Caracas yesterday to meet with acting President Delcy Rodriguez. It's the first known visit by a senior U.S. official to Venezuela since the ouster of Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. According to a U.S. official, CIA Director John Radcliffe told Rodriguez that the Trump administration wants to strengthen its working relationship with the government and discuss potential opportunities for economic collaboration. Rodriguez has cooperated with the Trump administration's demands, but she's kept up the nationalist rhetoric at home. In a speech yesterday, she said Venezuela would continue to do business with U.S.

6:54adversaries. And leaders of the Oglala Sioux tribe say that federal agents have arrested several Native American men, all of whom are U.S. citizens, amid the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis. A Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency has not been able to verify the claim. Coming up, a piece of chicken, some broccoli, a tortilla, and one other thing for$3? Our reporter did it. That's after the break.

7:29Treasury yields climbed after Trump's comments about HACID, but stocks were a little changed, and major U.S. indexes ended the day slightly lower. The Dow had the biggest drop, falling 0.2%. OpenAI plans to start testing ads in ChatGPT, a big shift in its business strategy as it tries to grow revenue. OpenAI says the ads won't influence what ChatGPT says and that there won't be ads when the chatbot's dealing with sensitive topics like mental health and politics. The company also says user conversations won't be sold to advertisers. News Corp, the journal's owner, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.

8:05Today, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would take up an appeal from Bayer about litigation over Roundup, the most widely used weed killer in the world. The companies argued that consumers shouldn't be able to sue it for failing to warn about cancer risks because U.S. federal regulators have determined that Roundup's main chemical ingredient doesn't require a cancer warning. If Bayer wins, it could help lead to the dismissal of thousands of cases against the company, litigation that has cost it billions of dollars. And Mitsubishi has agreed to acquire a U.S. shale gas business for$5.2 billion in the Japanese company's biggest deal ever.

8:40Mitsubishi's CEO said owning U.S. assets was important for Japan's energy security, as supply has been unstable because of geopolitical events in Venezuela, Iran, and Ukraine.

8:53And finally, how much does a nutritious dinner cost? According to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, it should only be a few bucks. Earlier this week, Rollins said on the NewsNation TV network that Americans could actually save money while eating according to the government's new dietary guidelines that emphasize protein. We've run over a thousand simulations. It can cost around$3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing. Two intrepid journal reporters put this claim to the test and found it was possible to make a$3 dinner, if not necessarily all that delicious.

9:31WSJ reporter Jared Midovich is joining me now from Boston. So, Jared, how did you and your colleague Rachel Wolf go about starting to address this question? Yeah, so the first thing we did was think about what is the agriculture secretary telling us to purchase? We also wanted to make sure we were consulting the agriculture department's dietary guidance. Rachel and I decided to hit the two grocery stores we could find closest by. We both tried to find boneless chicken breasts for as cheap as we could. I got Purdue. We both found flour tortillas. We couldn't find corn in either of our stores. And then we found broccoli.

10:06And what was your one other thing? My one other thing was Vermont cheddar cheese. Tried to stick with New England flavors. The department does advise us to have dairy with our meal. We were trying to make sure we hit all the groups, right? vegetables, protein, dairy, and grains. So the ingredients that I purchased to put this$3 meal together ended up totaling$26. Portioning it out to follow the secretary's guidance did get us to a total of$2.91. I wouldn't say it was the most filling meal. I wouldn't say it was maybe the most flavorful, but that wasn't really our goal. It was trying to see what is the meal that the secretary and the new guidance are advising?

10:43What does that actually look like and taste like? So is this something you're going to do on the regular now? Well, I do have some leftovers, so I'm probably going to keep parceling it out and seeing if I can really live the full Brooke Rollins$3 meal lifestyle. But no, I think it's definitely interesting to make sure these claims check. There was an interesting experiment, but as possible as it is, it's not always realistic. If you're time limited, limited by your geography, how close you are to a store, and that's something of the secretary mentioned too, that while they're promoting more protein or healthier food, they're staying cognizant of the fact that they need to make that food more accessible to lower-income households in particular.

11:21That was WSJ reporter Jared Midovich. Thanks, Jared. Thank you. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News in Markets. Then on Sunday, we'll be discussing how China's approach to AI technology is threatening Silicon Valley. That's in What's News Sunday. We're off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we'll be back with our regular show on Tuesday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Tali Arbel. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Jessica Fenton is our technical manager. Aisha El-Muslim is our development producer.

11:55Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Alex Osula. Thanks for listening.