WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� announced Friday that he'll nominate hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, an , to serve as his next treasury secretary.
Trump also said he would nominate Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position Vought held during Trump's first presidency. Vought was closely involved with , a conservative blueprint for Trump's second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign.
The announcements showed how Trump was fleshing out the financial side of his new administration. Although Bessent is closely aligned with Wall Street and could earn bipartisan support, Vought is known as a Republican hardliner.
Trump said Bessent would 鈥渉elp me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States," while Vought 鈥渒nows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.鈥�
Bessent and Vought were only two of several personnel decisions that Trump disclosed Friday evening.
Trump said he chose Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, as his labor secretary, and Scott Turner, a former football player who worked in Trump's first administration, as his housing secretary.
In addition, Trump rounded out his health team. He chose Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a general practitioner and Fox News contributor, to be surgeon general; Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Florida, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, as head of the Food and Drug Administration. Trump previously said he would nominate , a longtime spreader of conspiracy theories about vaccines, as health secretary.
Alex Wong was named as principal deputy national security adviser, while Sebastian Gorka will serve as senior director for counterterrorism. Wong worked on issues involving Asia during Trump鈥檚 first term, and Gorka is a conservative commentator who spent less than a year in Trump's White House.
Bessent, 62, is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation鈥檚 first openly gay treasury secretary.
He told Bloomberg in August that attacking the U.S. national debt should be a priority, which includes slashing government programs and other spending.
鈥淭his election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,鈥� he said then.
As of Nov. 8, , with both the Trump and Biden administrations having added to it. Trump鈥檚 policies added $8.4 trillion to the national debt, while the Biden administration increased the national debt by $4.3 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.
Even as he pushes to lower the national debt by stopping spending, Bessent has backed extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law in his first year in office. Estimates from various economic analyses of the costs of the various tax cuts range between nearly $6 trillion and $10 trillion over 10 years. Nearly all of the law鈥檚 provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Before becoming a Trump donor and adviser, Bessent donated to various Democratic causes in the early 2000s, notably Al Gore鈥檚 presidential run. He also worked for George Soros, a major supporter of Democrats. Bessent had an influential role in Soros鈥� London operations, including his famous 1992 bet against the pound, which generated huge profits on 鈥淏lack Wednesday,鈥� when the pound was de-linked from European currencies.
Bessent鈥檚 selection wasn鈥檛 surprising; he had been among the names floated for the treasury secretary role. At an Trump called Bessent 鈥渙ne of the top analysts on Wall Street.鈥�
Bessent told Bloomberg in August that he views tariffs as a 鈥渙ne time price adjustment鈥� and 鈥渘ot inflationary,鈥� and tariffs imposed during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China. And he wrote in a Fox News op-ed this week that tariffs are 鈥渁 useful tool for achieving the president鈥檚 foreign policy objectives," such as encouraging allies to spend more on defense or deterring military aggression.
Bessent has also floated ideas for how the Trump administration could put pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May 2026. Last month, Bessent suggested Trump could name a replacement chair early, and let that person function as a 鈥渟hadow鈥� chair, with the goal of essentially sidelining Powell.
But after the election, Bessent reportedly backed away from that plan. Powell, for his part, if Trump asked him to do so, and added that Trump, as president, doesn鈥檛 have the authority to fire him.
Trump repeatedly attacked Powell during his first term as president for raising the Fed鈥檚 key rate in 2017 and 2018. During the 2024 campaign, he said that as president he should have a 鈥渟ay鈥� in the central bank鈥檚 interest rate decisions. Presidents traditionally avoid commenting on the Fed鈥檚 policies.
Vought, 48, was the head of the Office of Management and Budget from mid-2020 to the end of Trump鈥檚 first term in 2021, having previously served as the acting director and deputy director. A graduate of Wheaton College and George Washington University Law School, he had a deep knowledge of government finances that has been paired with his own Christian faith.
After Trump鈥檚 initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as renewing "a consensus of America as a nation under God.鈥�
The Center for Renewing America released its own 2023 budget proposal entitled 鈥淎 Commitment to End Work and Weaponized Government.鈥� The proposal envisioned $11.3 trillion worth of spending reductions over 10 years and about $2 trillion in income tax cuts in order to bring the budget into surplus by 2032.
鈥淭he immediate threat facing the nation is the fact that the people no longer govern the country; instead, the government itself is increasingly weaponized against the people it is meant to serve,鈥� Vought wrote in the introduction.
Vought鈥檚 proposed budget plan would cut spending on food aid through the Agriculture Department. There would be $3.3 trillion in spending reductions in the Health and Human Services Department in large part through how Medicaid and Medicare funds are distributed. It also contains about $642 billion in cuts to Affordable Care Act. The budgets for the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments would also be cut.
Vought鈥檚 budget ideas were independent of Trump, who has not entirely spelled out the details of his economic plans, other than to campaign on income tax cuts and tariff hikes.
Trump's choice for labor secretary, Chavez-DeRemer, 56, narrowly lost her reelection bid earlier this month. She received strong backing from union members in her district.
Chavez-DeRemer is one of a few House Republicans to endorse that would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers鈥� rights. The act would also weaken 鈥渞ight-to-work鈥� laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment.
Trump said in a statement that she would help 鈥渆nsure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our Agenda for unprecedented National Success.鈥�
Fatima Hussein, Chris Rugaber, Josh Boak And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press
