(Bloomberg) - Rick Rieder, one of the finalists to lead the Federal Reserve, has donated to some of Donald Trump’s most prominent political rivals and Democratic leaders, a history that could present a fresh test of the president’s penchant for surrounding himself with loyalists.
Rieder, an executive at BlackRock, has a long, bipartisan donation history that includes contributions to Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign, the 2020 bids of Democrats Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker, and Jeb Bush’s 2016 run, according to Federal Election Commission data of contributions that match his name and employer.
FEC records show he did not support any of Trump’s runs in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Rieder’s bid to be the next central bank chair has gained momentum in recent weeks as he’s impressed the president with his plans for overhauling the Fed and his Wall Street bona fides. But his past donations could complicate his candidacy, underscoring Trump’s dilemma in finding a candidate that checks all the boxes.
The records show Rieder has donated to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries or their affiliated groups — both congressional Democrats hailing from New York. The FEC filings show Rieder lists addresses in New York and New Jersey.
He’s also given to other moderate Democrats, including Virginia Senator Mark Warner and former Senators Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, and Republicans who’ve long found themselves out of favor with Trump’s version of the GOP and have retired from politics, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
Representatives for Rieder and BlackRock declined to comment, but did not dispute the donations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the Fed search, has said Trump could publicize his pick as soon as this week. Trump on Tuesday said he’ll make an announcement “pretty soon.” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller and a former governor, Kevin Warsh, are also on the shortlist.
Among the candidates Trump is considering, Rieder is the biggest donor. Warsh has made 11 donations since 2003, the biggest of which was a $5,000 contribution in 2012 to a committee that backed House Republicans. However, Warsh’s father-in-law, Ronald Lauder, is a major political donor who has contributed millions of dollars to groups supporting Trump and other Republicans. Since 2001, Hassett has made two donations, while Waller made none, FEC records show.
The president has a mixed history of weighing past allegiances in his selections for top government jobs. Bessent, for instance, donated to both Haley’s and Trump’s presidential bids, and is a prolific donor to Republican causes.
But Trump has regularly applied purity tests to his hiring and staffing decisions, rejecting potential candidates who were aligned with Haley or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another 2024 presidential primary challenger.
And Trump has repeatedly said that loyalty is a key factor he’s seeking in a Fed pick.
“They’re saying everything I want to hear, and then they get the job. They’re locked in for six years. They get the job and all those and let’s raise rates a little bit,” Trump said about the Fed chair candidates in his Davos speech last week. “It’s amazing how people change once they have the job. It’s too bad — sort of disloyalty, but they got to do what they think is right.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that the president “will make an announcement about his pick for the Federal Reserve at the appropriate juncture. Any and all reporting on the Federal Reserve chairman nominations process until then is a waste of everyone’s time.”
Donor History
Rieder’s history as a political donor is both lengthy — with dozens of contributions dating back to 2005 — and modest by the standards of Wall Street’s most active donors.
His biggest donation since the 2020 election was, for instance, a contribution in December 2023 of $15,825 to a Haley-aligned group. At the time, the South Carolina Republican had amassed financial contributions from several prominent Wall Street donors, including Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Paul Singer of Elliott Investment Management.
Rieder has peppered donations for other candidates, including South Carolina Senator and Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, Wisconsin Republican Representative Brian Steil, Kentucky Republican Representative Andy Barr, Utah Republican Senator John Curtis and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
He also donated to the campaign of former Representative Kevin Brady, once the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
It’s common for senior executives at prominent financial firms to give generously to candidates in both major political parties. Donations from sitting Fed officials, while still legal, are far more unusual.
Then-Fed Governor Lael Brainard was the center of some controversy in 2016 after Bloomberg reported that she had contributed to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Former Senator Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who was then head of the Senate Banking Committee, said the contributions called into question the political independence of senior Fed officials.
Other current members of the Fed’s Board of Governors have made donations before joining the central bank. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who served in the George H.W. Bush Treasury Department, gave to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in 2003, the late Senator John McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012.
Fed Governor Michael Barr, who served as a Treasury official under Barack Obama, donated to Obama’s campaign in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Fed Governor Lisa Cook did as well, while a professor at Michigan State University. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman supported George W. Bush’s reelection campaign and the 2008 presidential primary campaign of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Stephen Miran, whom Trump appointed to the board last year, is the only member who donated to the president’s campaign. He gave $1,000.
By Josh Wingrove and Bill Allison
With assistance from Christopher Condon and Silla Brush
