President Trump also announced that he would nominate Russell Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget, a position that Vought held when he was the first president. Vought was closely involved project 2025the conservative blueprint for President Trump’s second term, which he sought to distance himself from during the campaign.
Friday night’s announcement showed how President Trump is fleshing out the financial aspects of his new administration. Mr. Bessent is closely aligned with Wall Street and could enjoy bipartisan support, while Mr. Vought is known as a Republican hardliner.
Trump said Bessent “will help usher in a new golden age for America” and that Vought “knows exactly how to dismantle the deep state and end weaponized government.” said.
In a separate announcement, President Trump said he has chosen Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez Delemer to be secretary of labor.
“I look forward to working with her to create greater opportunity for American workers,” President Trump said in a statement.
Mr. Bessent, 62, is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management after working intermittently at Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would become the country’s first openly gay Treasury secretary.
He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join the Trump campaign in part to attack America’s growing national debt. That would include cuts to government programs and other spending.
“This election cycle is our last chance to get the United States out of this debt mountain without turning into a European-style socialist democracy,” he said at the time.
As of November 8th, National debt reaches $35.94 trillionboth the Trump and Biden administrations added to it. President Trump’s policies increased the national debt by $8.4 trillion, while the Biden administration increased the national debt by $4.3 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.
Even as he pushes to reduce the national debt through spending cuts, Bessent supports extending provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which President Trump signed into law in his first year in office. Estimates from various economic analyzes of the cost of various tax cuts range from nearly $6 trillion to $10 trillion over 10 years. Almost all of the law’s provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
Before Bessent became a donor and advisor to Trump, he donated to various Democratic causes in the early 2000s, most notably Al Gore’s presidential campaign. He also worked for George Soros, a major supporter of the Democratic Party. Mr Bessent was an influential figure in Soros’ activities in London, including his famous bet against the pound in 1992, which generated huge profits on Black Wednesday, when the pound was separated from Europe’s currencies.
Bessent’s choice was not surprising. He was one of the names floated as a candidate for Treasury Secretary. in Detroit Economic Club events in October; Trump called Bessent “one of the top analysts on Wall Street.”
Bessent told Bloomberg in August that he believed the tariffs were a “one-time price adjustment” and “not inflationary,” adding that any tariffs imposed during the second Trump administration would primarily be imposed on China. He said he would be directed. And he wrote in a Fox News op-ed this week that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy goals.” Whether it’s forcing allies to spend more on their defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, ensuring cooperation in combating illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs play a central role. I can. ”
Asked earlier this month whether tariffs would pay for Trump’s massive deportation campaign, Bessent told Fox News that he was working on a plan he called “economic deportation.” It said it would restrict the flow of remittances from immigrants to their home countries.
Bessent also offers ideas for how the Trump administration could put pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Mr. Bessent suggested last month that Mr. Trump could quickly name a replacement chairman and have that person act as a “shadow figure.” The chairman is essentially trying to sideline Mr. Powell.
But after the election, Bessent reportedly withdrew from the project. As Mr. Powell, he says he won’t resign If Trump asked him to do so, he added, he did not have the authority as president to remove him from office.
President Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell for raising the Fed’s key interest rates in 2017 and 2018 during his first term in office. During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Powell said that as president he should have a “say” on the central bank’s interest rate decisions. Presidents traditionally avoid commenting on Fed policy.
Bessent and her husband, former New York City prosecutor John Freeman, married in 2011 and have two children.
Vought, 48, served as director of the Office of Management and Budget from mid-2020 until the end of President Trump’s first term in 2021, and previously served as acting director and deputy director. A graduate of Wheaton College and George Washington University Law School, he had a deep knowledge of government finance combined with his Christian faith.
After Trump’s first term ended, Vought founded the Center for American Renewal, a think tank whose mission is to renew the “consensus about America as a nation under God.”
The Center for American Renewal released its own 2023 budget proposal titled “Work and a Commitment to End Weaponized Government.” The proposal envisions spending cuts worth $11.3 trillion over 10 years and income tax cuts of about $2 trillion to bring the budget into surplus by 2032.
“The immediate threat facing this country is the fact that the people can no longer govern the country. In fact, the government itself is increasingly being weaponized against the people it is supposed to serve.” writes Vought in the preface.
Vought also previously served as executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of conservative House Republicans. He also worked for Heritage Action, a political group affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Mr. Vought’s proposed budget would reduce spending on food aid through the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Health and Human Services would reduce spending by $3.3 trillion, primarily due to the way Medicaid and Medicare funds are allocated. It also includes about $642 billion in cuts to the Affordable Care Act. Budgets for the housing and urban development and education departments will also be cut.
Mr. Vought’s budget proposal was independent from President Trump, who did not fully reveal the details of his economic plan beyond calling for income tax cuts and higher tariffs. __
Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
