President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is preparing to announce the selection of Scott Bessent, who runs macro hedge fund Key Square Group, as the next US Treasury secretary, people familiar with the matter said.
The announcement is expected to be made as soon as Friday, the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the process, said they are preparing a press release.
Bessent, 62, served as a key economic adviser to Trump during the campaign, promoting his agenda and crafting policy speeches. If confirmed by the Senate — which will be held by Republicans when Trump takes office in January — Bessent will assume the role of the nation’s top policymaker, pushing Trump’s bid to extend many of the 2017 tax cuts. expire next year.
Treasury secretaries have major responsibilities over the global economy, including oversight of the world’s largest bond market, tax collection and economic sanctions.
Trump has considered several candidates, including Apollo Global Management Inc. executive Marc Rowan, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty. Another contender, Howard Lutnick, the transition chairman, was earlier dropped from the race when Trump nominated him to lead the Commerce Department.
Until the announcement is final, Trump may still choose another candidate. The Trump transition team and Bessent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bessent has been a supporter of the realignment of US monetary policy, although he does not support an overt strategy of appreciating the dollar. During Trump’s first term, the then-president described the appreciation of the dollar as harmful to US manufacturers and even considered government intervention to manage the greenback’s value.
Bessent acknowledged that while a weaker dollar would be good for parts of the economy, some of Trump’s proposals would increase its value.
“Tariffs cause a stronger dollar, therefore a weaker dollar with tariffs; it’s an economic anomaly,” Bessent. he said In an interview on Bloomberg TV, he agreed with the analysis of many economists.
In a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Bessent said Trump’s election “prompted the US dollar’s largest one-day rise in more than two years, and the third in the last decade.”
“This is a vote of confidence in US leadership internationally and in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” he said.
He has criticized the administration of President Joe Biden for its handling of the financing of the federal debt, and has spoken of its “extension.”friends” policy to create a tiered system among trading partners.
