Poor Chris Waller.

If there’s anything more pathetic than a man pandering to another man in pursuit of power, it’s a man willing to do so knowing full well the odds of success are vanishingly small.

In my opinion, that’s what Waller’s doing by lobbying publicly for a rate cut at this month’s FOMC meeting. I’m hardly the only person to suggest that Waller has designs on Jerome Powell’s job and has for quite a while. Being a smart guy, I have to assume Waller also understands his chances of beating out the other candidates on Trump’s shortlist are basically nil.

Trump demands full-on servility. “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty,” as he allegedly told James Comey. He also prefers to put outsiders in important roles, having learned during his first term that “establishment” insiders are, by definition, shaped by their institutional experience.

Waller’s experience with the Federal Reserve System dates to the mid-1990s. It’d be inaccurate to describe him as a “creature of the Fed,” but he’s certainly a card-carrying member of the orthodox economics profession in America. In simple terms, Chris Waller, Fed Chair does not equal Kash Patel, FBI Director.

Why Waller’s even vaguely entertaining the idea he can be both a respected economist and Trump’s “2.0” Fed chief is a mystery to this observer. There’s no room for people like Waller in Trump’s inner circle, and make no mistake: Trump intends to bring the Fed Chair into his inner circle.

In case Chris hasn’t noticed, experts are persona non grata in the Trump administration. In fact, Trump may be the only employer in the world for whom expertise and experience are actually marks against you as a job seeker. In some cases, the less qualified you are, the better your shot at a given role.

Ideally, you won’t just be unqualified when you’re applying for a job with Trump, you’ll be the antithesis of the job you’re vying for. For example, Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services is a vaccine skeptic and a former heroin addict.

By the same logic, too much experience can be wholly disqualifying. And Waller has decades of experience.

Waller, of all people, should know how little Trump values expertise. He’s only on the Fed board because Trump couldn’t get Stephen Moore and Herman Cain through the Senate. If you recall, Waller was the only one of Trump’s four picks to be confirmed. That Cain was (easily) the most qualified of the other three (Judy Shelton was the third) says a lot.

To be sure, Kevin Warsh has a lot of experience, and he’s widely believed to be a frontrunner to replace Powell. But even Warsh’s wildly obsequious cameos on Fox News in recent days weren’t enough to keep Kevin Hassett from “grabbing pole position,” to quote the headline of a recent Bloomberg piece on the Powell succession race.

Hassett’s an economist — a real one, unlike Moore and Shelton — but he’s also overtly cartoonish and someone whose comportment virtually screams, “I’m a pushover. Please bully me.” As Nancy Cook and Catarina Saraiva put it, in a hilariously blunt assessment, “Once seen as a measured right-leaning economist aligned with politicians like Mitt Romney, Hassett has gone full MAGA.”

Waller’s shown himself willing to play Judas to Jay’s Jesus, but I wonder if, when push comes to shove, he’s got it in him to turn the Fed “full MAGA.” I think Warsh might. But I know Hassett does, and Scott Bessent probably does too. Chris’s odds are thus long indeed.

That’s what makes it so sad to see him prostrate himself on national television as he did again on Friday while previewing what, in my view, is guaranteed to be a dissent at this month’s FOMC meeting. “It’s often the case,” Waller told Bloomberg TV, “that you dissent if you make it very clear that at this moment in time you think this is an important thing to do.”

Sorry, Chris. But you’re still not going to be Trump’s Fed Chair. Heartbreaking as this probably is to hear, I doubt you’re even under consideration. I mean, sure, you’re a talented economist. But let’s face it: You’re no Kevin Hassett.