Donald Trump to tap Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, ending fierce battle for key job: sources
President-elect Donald Trump named hedge fund mogul Scott Bessent as the next Treasury secretary on Friday, ending a rough-and-tumble race that saw fierce jockeying among power players across Wall Street.
“I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,” Trump wrote in his announcement, posted on Truth Social.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists,” the president-elect said of this Treasury pick.
Bessent “got the thumbs up” late Thursday during a meeting with Trump, 78, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., one source close to the situation told The Post.
A flurry of last-minute media reports had floated several candidates for the job. Late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that financier Kevin Warsh had met with Trump on Wednesday about the Treasury post — and possibly replacing Jerome Powell as Fed chairman when his term expires in 2026.
Trump also met about the Treasury role with Marc Rowan, the billionaire boss of buyout firm Apollo Global Management, at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.
Bessent, the 62-year-old founder of Key Square Group, has repeatedly backed the president-elect’s pro-tariff stance in a series of op-eds and media appearances over the past year.
“Scott’s story is that of the American Dream,” Trump said Friday, noting that Bessent “has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda.”
“On the eve of our Great Country’s 250th Anniversary, 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, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the World,” he added.
“Unlike in past Administrations, we will ensure that no Americans will be left behind in the next and Greatest Economic Boom, and Scott will lead that effort for me, and the Great People of the United States of America.”
A source close to the Trump transition team told the Post earlier on Friday that the hedge fund executive was “being vetted” for the role ahead of a formal announcement.
“If you want to bring a genius into that job who is loyal to the president, Scott is the right guy,” one source close to the situation said.
One faction of Trump World had been pushing for Bessent for weeks, trying to outmaneuver Howard Lutnick — the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team — in what had reportedly escalated into a bitter “knife fight” for the coveted role.
One insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lutnick, a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, was eventually handed the post of Commerce Secretary “to calm things down.”
After Lutnick exited the Treasury race, sources said Trump continued to do interviews to hash out his options. Bessent and Rowan were both spotted at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.
“All the top investors and hedge funds said Scott Bessent is their number one pick because of his understanding of macroeconomics,” said one veteran Wall Street insider.
A source briefed on Rowan’s interview, meanwhile, said the 62-year-old was “an anti-tariff guy and that was a non-starter for the president.”
Another staunch Trump loyalist and major donor, billionaire hedge fund boss John Paulson, ruled himself out of an administration post just one week after the Nov. 5 election.
A native of South Carolina, Bessent previously served as chief investment officer for George Soros and was instrumental in the Hungarian-born money man’s “Black Wednesday” trade in 1992.
The bet against the British pound “broke the Bank of England”, raking in an eye-watering $1 billion payday for Soros that cemented his reputation as a titan of global finance.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Bessent said Trump’s second presidential term would usher in “a revitalized economy for all Americans.”
Bessent also lashed out at the Biden-Harris administration for presiding over four years of “reckless spending” that has seen Uncle Sam’s debt pile hit an eye-watering $35 trillion this year.
“The Biden administration’s mismanagement has created serious challenges that Mr. Trump will need to overcome,” Bessent stated in the Nov. 10 op-ed, adding that Trump “has a mandate to re-privatize the US economy through deregulation and tax reform to spur the supply-side growth that he delivered in his first term.”
Large parts of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire next year, giving Bessent the chance to help shape fiscal policy under the incoming commander-in-chief.
“My Administration will restore Freedom, Strength, Resilience, and Efficiency to our Capital Markets,” Trump’s announcement continued. “We will reinvigorate the Private Sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt.”
“As a lifelong Champion of Main Street America and American Industry, Scott will support my Policies that will drive U.S. Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances, work to create an Economy that places Growth at the forefront, especially through our coming World Energy Dominance,” he added. “Together, we will Make America Rich Again, Prosperous Again, Affordable Again, and, most importantly, Great Again!”
The president-elect has already tapped Tesla titan Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency and tighten up the federal government’s purse strings.
Diana Glebova contributed reporting.
