President-elect Donald Trump on Friday asked Scott Bessent, a top fundraiser to his campaign, to serve as secretary of the Treasury Department, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent will helm the fiscal policies for an economy that weathered high inflation in recent years, an issue that remained top of mind for many voters who helped send Trump back to the White House in the election earlier this month.
Trump’s pick will be tasked with implementing any tax cuts that a Republican-controlled Congress may pursue. And with Trump proposing aggressive tariffs on imports from countries spanning the globe, the new Treasury Department chief will have to manage relationships with global finance ministers who may choose to retaliate with tariffs of their own.
The Cabinet-level job is to steer federal fiscal policies set by Congress and the White House. The secretary is also the executive branch’s top go-between with the Federal Reserve, a traditionally autonomous institution that sets monetary policies, such as determining interest rates and steering economic conditions at a broader level. That could be a delicate task in the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to put unprecedented political pressure on the central bank.
During his time in and out of office, Trump has blasted Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he nominated in 2017. In an October interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said the president should not be allowed to order interest rate decisions but should be able to “put in comments as to whether the interest rates should go up or down.”
Powell has said he would not yield the position if Trump asked him to resign, meaning he could in theory remain chairman until his term expires in May 2026. With inflation moderating over the past year, the Powell-led Fed has cut interest rates as part of a bid to stop high borrowing costs from unduly raising unemployment.
In Trump’s first term, he tapped banker Steven Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department. Mnuchin, who also dabbled in Hollywood as a financier and producer, fumbled over some ethics rules at the beginning of his term, landing himself briefly in hot water for plugging a Lego Batman that he executive produced.
But his tenure at the Treasury Department was more stable than those of other high-level Cabinet posts in Trump’s first term. Mnuchin remained in the role for all four years, helping steer the economy through the onset of the pandemic by helping to push the $2 trillion CARES Act toward bipartisan passage in March 2020.
The stimulus package, which most memorably included checks sent directly to households, was hailed by economists as a bridge that helped carry the U.S. over the worst economic turbulence from the pandemic and shutdown orders meant to combat it.
After Trump’s re-election, Mnuchin told CNBC he was unlikely to accept a new Cabinet role but would “be happy to serve from the outside.” Since leaving office, Mnuchin launched an investment fund that reportedly sourced its capital from sovereign wealth funds in several Gulf states.
Zoë Richards contributed.
