MW Trump's Treasury secretary pick: Scott Bessent, Larry Kudlow or Howard Lutnick might get the job
By Victor Reklaitis
Support for tariffs looks like a key qualification
While President-elect Donald Trump has rolled out his selections for a number of key administration roles, he has yet to announce his pick for Treasury secretary.
His top choices appear to include hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent and Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard Lutnick - though other names remain in the mix for the job. The position of Treasury Department boss is crucial, as it can be viewed as the country's chief financial officer and the president's main adviser on economic matters.
Lutnick has been making hiring decisions as co-chair of Trump's 2024 transition team, but he's now a job candidate himself. Multiple published reports have said some Trump allies view Bessent as insufficiently supportive of Trump's import tariff plans.
Lutnick, on the other hand, said during a Trump campaign rally last month that America was great about 125 years ago when the country "had no income tax, and all we had was tariffs." He also described tariffs as "an amazing tool" in a CNBC interview in September. He's known in part for leading privately held Cantor Fitzgerald, which offers investment-banking and brokerage services, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which 658 of its employees were killed.
To be sure, Bessent, the founder and CEO of Key Square Capital Management, also has offered some support for tariffs. He said in an Economist column last month that "broad-based tariffs" will be "more effective than microeconomic interventions like industrial policy that generally rely on the government to pick winners and losers."
In addition, Bessent - who once served as chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, the firm founded by storied investor and Democratic megadonor George Soros - has often defended the president-elect's economic policies. He told MarketWatch in July that it was "absurd" to think they would be inflationary.
Trump has called for universal tariffs of 10% or up to 20% on all imports, as well as a levy of 60% on Chinese imports.
Related: Trump's tax plans: $7,500 EV credit likely to get axed, as tariffs spark anxiety
And see: Republicans clinch control of House, setting stage for quicker action on extending tax cuts
Other names also have been circulating for the Treasury job. Trump might pick Robert Lighthizer, known for embracing tariffs while serving as U.S. trade representative in the first Trump administration.
The president-elect is also considering Larry Kudlow for top economic posts such as National Economic Council director and possibly Treasury secretary, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday. Kudlow, a Fox Business Network host, led the NEC during the first Trump administration.
Jay Clayton, who led the Securities and Exchange Commission during the first Trump term, has been mentioned as well, but Trump on Thursday nominated him for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Billionaire investor John Paulson took himself out of the running for the Treasury post earlier this week.
One betting market, Polymarket, gave Bessent a 59% chance of becoming the Treasury nominee on Friday, while Kudlow was at 37% and Lutnick was at 22%. Lighthizer was at 5%, and the Treasury secretary in Trump's first term, Steve Mnuchin, was at 1%. Mnuchin has said he's not interested in doing the job again.
After Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, it took three weeks before Mnuchin was revealed to be the Treasury pick.
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-Victor Reklaitis
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November 15, 2024 12:23 ET (17:23 GMT)
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