Trump Team Prepares to Name Bessent as Treasury Nominee – BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is preparing to announce that he has selected Scott Bessent, who runs macro hedge fund Key Square Group, as the next U.S. Treasury secretary, according to people familiar with the matter.

The announcement is expected to be made as soon as Friday, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the process, and a news release is being prepared.

Bessent, 62, was a key economic adviser to Trump during the campaign, promoting his agenda and preparing policy speeches. If approved by the Senate, which will be in Republican hands when Trump takes office in January, Bessent would take on the role of the nation’s highest-ranking economic policymaker and lead Trump’s bid to extend many of his 2017 tax cuts beyond what was planned. Expires next year.

Finance ministers bear enormous responsibility for the global economy, including overseeing the world’s largest bond market, tax collection and economic sanctions.

Trump weighed several candidates, including the chief executive of Apollo Global Management Inc. Mark Rowan, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty. Another contender, transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, was sidelined earlier when Trump nominated him to head the Commerce Department.

Until the announcement is final, Trump could still choose another candidate. Trump’s transition team and Bessent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bessent was a proponent of overhauling US monetary policy, although he refrained from supporting an overt strategy of dollar depreciation. During Trump’s first term, the then-president called the dollar’s appreciation harmful to American manufacturers and even considered government intervention to manage the value of the dollar.

Bessent acknowledged that while a weaker dollar would benefit some parts of the economy, some of Trump’s proposals would increase its value.

“Tariffs cause the dollar to strengthen, so a weakening dollar along with tariffs is an economic anomaly,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, agreeing with the analysis of many economists.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Bessent said Trump’s election “led to the largest one-day gain in the U.S. dollar in more than two years and the third-largest in a decade.”

“This is a vote of confidence in U.S. leadership internationally and in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” he said.

He criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for its handling of federal debt financing and talked of expanding its “friendship” policy to create a tiered system among trading partners.

–With assistance from Catherine Burton, Ben Holland, Michelle Jamrisko, Victoria Dendrinou and Christopher Anstey.

(Updates to add additional details and background)

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