Trump nominates Bessent to lead US Treasury in flurry of announcements

Donald Trump has nominated Scott Bessent to lead the US Treasury Department, a post with wide oversight of tax policy, public debt, international finance and sanctions.

The selection ends what has proven to be one of the more protracted decisions for the president-elect as he assembles his team for a second term.

Bessent, a Wall Street financier who once worked for George Soros, was an early backer of Trump’s 2024 bid and brings a relatively conventional resume to the role.

The 62-year-old’s nomination on Friday evening kicked-off a series of cabinet announcements and White House appointments that leaves Trump’s top team almost complete ahead of his return to the presidency in January.

“[He] has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda,” he said, adding that Bessent would “support my Policies that will drive US Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances.”

On the campaign trail, Bessent told voters that Trump would usher in a “new golden age with de-regulation, low-cost energy, [and] low taxes”.

Trump also nominated Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer for US Labor Secretary on Friday, saying she would help to “grow wages and improve working conditions [and] bring back our manufacturing jobs”.

The representative from Oregon, 56, won strong trade union support but narrowly lost her bid for re-election earlier this month, meaning her nomination will not affect the Republican majority in the House come January.

He then made another cabinet nomination moments later, announcing Scott Turner as his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The NFL veteran and motivational speaker previously served in the Texas House of Representatives.

Trump also announced a series of senior health picks, giving his backing to Fox News contributor Dr Janette Nesheiwat as Surgeon General and former Florida Congressman Dr Dave Weldon as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

He selected Russell Vought as director of the US Office of Management and Budget, which helps decide policy priorities and how they should be funded.

Vought, who played a role in Project 2025 – a “wish list” for a second Trump presidency by the conservative Heritage Foundation – held the same position during Trump’s first term.

The president-elect also announced White House roles for Alex Wong and Sebastian Gorka who also served during Trump’s first term.

If his nomination to lead the Treasury department is confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would almost immediately be plunged into the fight in Washington over extending the tax cuts from Trump’s first term.

Trump has also called for controversial changes to trade policy, proposing sweeping tariffs on all goods coming into the country.

Such ideas have been met with alarm in traditional economic and corporate circles.

In an interview with Fox News shortly before the election, Bessent said ensuring the tax cuts do not expire as planned at the end of next year would be his top priority, if he ended up in the administration.

“If it doesn’t happen, this will be the largest tax increase in US history,” he warned.

For other posts, Trump has been willing to back candidates with minimal experience in favour of loyalty and apparent conviction in his pledges.

But he has appeared more hesitant to buck convention at the Treasury Department, which serves as a key liaison between the White House and Wall Street and has critical functions that include collecting taxes, supervising banks, wielding sanctions and handling US government debt.

In his announcement, Trump said Bessent would “help curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt”. That issue has long been a priority for traditional Republicans, but financial markets see an increase in debt as a risk in a second Trump term.

Bessent, a native of South Carolina, made his name in the 1990s betting against the British pound and Japanese yen while working for Soros, a major Democratic donor.

In 2015, he started his own fund, Key Square Capital Management, which is known for making investments based on big-picture economic policy.

He and his husband, a former New York City prosecutor, married in 2011 and have two children. He is known for philanthropy in South Carolina, where his family has deep roots.

Bessent has defended tariffs – a capstone of Trump’s protectionist agenda – arguing that opposition to them is rooted in political ideology and not “considered economic thought”.

But he has also characterised Trump’s support for such border taxes as a negotiating tool, suggesting the president-elect isn’t necessarily committed to aggressively raising duties.

That stance makes him more moderate than others whose names were floated for the treasury role.

However, Bessent has been a strong proponent of Trump’s embrace of the crypto industry. Such support would make him the first treasury secretary to openly champion cryptocurrency, sending a clear signal that Trump is serious about establishing the US as the “crypto capital of the planet”.

BBC