Trump picks billionaire investor Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary

The hedge fund manager will be responsible for implementing president-elect’s pledges to cut taxes and raise tariffs.

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury secretary in a blitz of announcements after his choice for attorney general said he was withdrawing.

The 62-year-old Bessent, founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management, was tapped to execute an economic agenda expected to be built around cutting taxes and imposing tariffs.

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump said in a statement late on Friday.

“He will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the world’s leading economy,” he said, adding that Bessent would also help “reinvigorate the private sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of federal debt”.

The choice for Treasury secretary, a protracted process, was the most anticipated by the US business and finance community, given Trump’s plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term.

The head of the Treasury Department will have broad oversight of tax policy, public debt, international finance and sanctions.

Bessent, a Wall Street financier who once worked for George Soros, was an early backer of Trump’s 2024 bid, donating at least $3m to the campaign, according to records from the election commission.

He has called for rolling back government subsidies, deregulating the economy, raising domestic energy production, and has also defended the use of tariffs.

The market’s surge after Trump’s election victory signalled investor expectations of “higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans”, he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal.

Trump’s announcement capped a flurry of appointments to fill his cabinet after Matt Gaetz announced that he was withdrawing from consideration for attorney general following renewed focus on sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Russell Vought was chosen to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the same position he held during Trump’s first presidency.

Trump also picked Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer for labour secretary and said he would nominate Scott Turner, a former football player who worked in his first administration, to serve as housing secretary.

Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick was named commerce secretary.

Trump additionally nominated Dr Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The surgeon and professor at Johns Hopkins University gained national attention for opposing vaccine mandates and other public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat is set to be the next surgeon general, while doctor and former Republican Representative Dave Weldon of Florida was chosen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.