U.S President-elect, Donald Trump has chosen Hedge Fund Manager, Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.
The move to select Bessent is the latest as the President-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House.
The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including the former Goldman Sachs Executives; Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first Treasury Chief.
Janet Yellen is the current Treasury Secretary and first woman in the job.
As the 79th Treasury Secretary, Bessent would essentially be the highest-ranking US economic official, responsible for maintaining the plumbing of the world’s largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation’s bills to managing the $28.6tn Treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises.
The Treasury Secretary also runs US financial sanctions policy, oversees the US-led International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the US.
Bessent would face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8tn over a decade due to Trump’s plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on social security income.
Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon US debt by $22tn through 2033.
Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump’s agenda would unleash stronger economic growth that would grow revenue and shore up market confidence.
Bessent would also inherit the role carved out by Yellen to lead the G7 nations to provide tens of billions of dollars in economic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and tighten sanctions on Moscow.
However, given Trump’s desire to end the war quickly and withdraw US financial support for Ukraine, it is unclear whether he would pursue this.
Another area where Bessent will likely differ from Yellen is her focus on climate change, from her mandate that development banks expand lending for clean energy to incorporating climate risks into financial regulations and managing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits.
Trump, a climate-change skeptic, has vowed to increase production of US fossil fuel energy and end the clean-energy subsidies in Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Leaders For More Key Roles Selected
Aside Bessent, Trump made a flurry of picks.
He chose Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be the Secretary of Labor.
He also selected Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget(OMB).
The OMB oversees the development and execution of the federal budget and the office has significant influence over the President’s agenda.
Vought was one of the key authors of Project 2025, the controversial conservative policy blueprint, and was Trump’s Budget Director during his first administration.
Trump named Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Congressman, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, Trump announced Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his Surgeon General.
He chose Alex Wong as his principal Deputy National Security Adviser and Sebastian Gorka as his Senior Director for counterterrorism.
Moreso, the U.S President-elect chose Dr. Marty Makary to be the Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
Trump named Scott Turner, a former NFL player, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, known colloquially as HUD.
Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the role of the Secretary of the Department Agriculture.
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