President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate hedge fund tycoon Scott Bessent to be the next Secretary of the Treasury, four sources told The Post, marking the beginning of a fierce battle between Wall Street power players. This brought an end to the eventful race.
Mr. Bessent “showed a favor” late Thursday during a meeting with President Trump, 78, at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, a person familiar with the matter told the Post. .
A flurry of last-minute media reports had identified several potential candidates for him. late Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal reported Investor Kevin Warsh said Wednesday that he spoke with President Trump about his Treasury post and the possibility of replacing Jerome Powell as Fed chairman when his term expires in 2026. .
Trump also spoke at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week with Mark Rowan, the billionaire president of acquisition firm Apollo Global Management, about the role of the Treasury Department.
Mr. Bessent, 62, the founder of Key Square Group, has repeatedly supported the president-elect's pro-tariff stance in a series of op-eds and media appearances over the past year.
A source close to Trump's transition team told the Post early Friday that the hedge fund executive was “under scrutiny” for his role ahead of a formal announcement.
“If you want to bring a genius loyal to the president into this position, Mr. Scott is the best choice,'' said a person familiar with the matter.
Certain factions in Trump World have been pushing Bessent for weeks, trying to outdo Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump's transition team. However, a heated “knife fight” reportedly ensued over the coveted position.
One person, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lutnick, who helped raise money for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, was ultimately handed the commerce secretary post “to calm things down.” .
Sources said that even after Lutnick withdrew from the Treasury race, Trump continued to interview him to narrow down his options. Bessent and Rowan were spotted at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.
“All the big investors and hedge funds say Scott Bessent is their first choice because of his understanding of macroeconomics,” said one Wall Street veteran.
Meanwhile, a person briefed on Rowan's interview said the 62-year-old “is anti-tariff and that was not a starting point for a president.”
Billionaire hedge fund boss John Paulson, another ardent Trump supporter and major donor, resigned himself from his administration post just a week after the Nov. 5 election.
A native of South Carolina, Mr. Bessent previously worked for as chief investment officer A supporter of George Soros, he was instrumental in the Hungarian-born moneyman's “Black Wednesday” trades in 1992.
The bet against the British pound “broke the Bank of England”, amassed an eye-watering $1 billion salary for Soros and cemented his reputation as a titan of global finance.
write to Wall Street Journal earlier this monthBessent said President Trump's second term would result in a “revitalized economy for all Americans.”
Bessent also slammed the Biden-Harris administration for more than four years of “reckless spending” that has seen Uncle Sam's debt mountain reach an eye-popping $35 trillion this year.
“The Biden administration's mismanagement has created serious challenges that President Trump must overcome,” Bessent wrote in an op-ed on Nov. 10, adding that Trump has “an obligation to improve the U.S. economy through deregulation and tax reform.” “We have a mission to re-privatize it,” he added. He spurred the supply-side growth achieved in his first term. ”
Most of President Trump's 2017 tax cuts are set to expire next year, giving Bessent an opportunity to help shape fiscal policy under the next commander in chief.
The president-elect has already tapped Tesla mogul Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswami to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, tightening the federal government's purse strings.
Diana Glebova contributed reporting.
