After two weeks of uncertainty, Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime Wall Street investor, as his next Treasury secretary. The pick capped a behind-the-scenes battle one advisor called a “knife fight.” WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia takes us inside the decision, explores why Bessent triumphed and unpacks what his tenure could mean for the U.S. economy. Further Reading: -How Scott Bessent Won the ‘Knife Fight’ to Be Trump’s Treasury Secretary -Scott Bessent Sees a Coming ‘Global Economic Reordering.’ He Wants to Be Part of It. Further Listening: -Gaetz, Bondi and Trump's Department of Justice -The Scramble Is on to Fill Trump's Cabinet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What key issues did Trump focus on during his campaign?
During his campaign, one of President-elect Donald Trump's top issues was the economy.
Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe have driven our economy off a cliff. The Harris price hikes have cost the typical household $28,000. Congratulations. Hope everyone's happy. I'm going to make America affordable again. In addition to making it great again, we're going to make it affordable again.
Trump promised big changes by levying tariffs, cutting taxes, and deregulating parts of the economy. Which is why, as Trump has named his cabinet picks over the past few weeks, our colleague Andrew Restuccia has been watching for one role in particular.
Yeah, we've been sort of chasing our tails over the last few weeks, trying to figure out what the president is going to do before he does it. But this is a big one for us. On Friday, the president-elect announced that he was going to pick Scott Besant to run the Treasury Department.
Scott Besant. He's a 62-year-old hedge fund manager from South Carolina. And unlike some of Trump's other cabinet nominations, this one took some time.
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Chapter 2: Who is Scott Bessent and what is his background?
There were plenty of other decisions that happened quickly. The defense secretary, the attorney general, big positions that happened in just a matter of days. The fact that this took more than two weeks says a lot about the political importance of the economy for Trump. I mean, he knows that this is one of the issues that sunk Biden and then later Harris.
And he knows his political fortunes are really tied up in it.
Right. And the treasury secretary is key to making his economic promises happen.
The Treasury Secretary, if Besson is confirmed, will be at the center of the entire economic agenda for the president-elect. He has made the economy kind of the centerpiece of his political campaign, and the Treasury Secretary will be at the center of all that. And whether he succeeds or fails will, of course, be at the feet of the president, but will also really be at the feet of Scott Besson.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Tuesday, November 26th. Coming up on the show, what Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary might signal for the U.S. economy.
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Chapter 3: Why was the Treasury Secretary appointment significant?
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What does the Treasury Secretary do?
Good question. So the Treasury Secretary does a lot of things. So they are essentially the core economic policymaking engine of the federal government. They are in charge of lots of wonky things. They implement tax policy. They manage the nation's debt. They lead financial regulations. They oversee sanctions. And they conduct economic diplomacy abroad. So it's a huge mandate.
It's a massive department. And it's a really crucial job.
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Chapter 4: What role does the Treasury Secretary play?
Like Trump's last Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, Scott Besant is a longtime Wall Street investor. He started his career at Soros Fund Management, the investment firm founded by the billionaire George Soros. Soros, by the way, has been a big supporter of liberal causes and a big target of the right wing.
Back in the 90s, Besant worked with Soros' team to short the British pound, a move that led to a billion-dollar windfall. Later, Besant co-founded his own investment company called Key Square Capital Management.
He sort of spent his entire career in this sort of investing world. And for someone like Donald Trump, a businessman who thinks in terms of dollars and cents, that's really important. He really likes people who have experience on Wall Street and people who have, in his view, been successful on Wall Street. He sees that as a really important asset, particularly at the Treasury Secretary role.
Remember, in his first term, Stephen Mnuchin, who was a Wall Street guy, was his... first term treasury secretary and maintained a relatively good relationship with Trump throughout his term.
Which is remarkable. It's unusual.
It is. Yeah. I mean, you saw a lot of people come and go during the first term. Some lasted, you know, only weeks or months. And for someone to stick around for four years is really notable.
So what's Besant's relationship like with Trump? Do they know each other well?
They know each other well now, but it's a relatively recent relationship. Besson has known the Trump family in a sort of acquaintance type way for decades, but he really started getting to know Trump about a year ago. Trump was impressed with Besson's unequivocal support at a time when a lot of people on Wall Street were backing people like Nikki Haley or just staying out of it altogether.
So he really caught Trump's eye there. when he was on TV praising him up and down?
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Chapter 5: What was Scott Bessent's relationship with Trump?
His physical appearance. Trump talks about – one of the highest forms of praise from Trump is when he describes someone as straight from central casting. It means that they look the part. And Scott Besant does look the part.
He has sort of gray hair and it's swept back and he wears glasses and he looks sort of almost professorial and he looks like the kind of guy that you sort of want to be the face for the treasurer's secretary, at least in Trump's opinion.
Besant seemed like a natural fit, but he wasn't the only name in the mix. There was also Howard Letnick, the CEO of a financial services company called Cantor Fitzgerald. Letnick is a close Trump ally and a strong supporter of Trump's economic plans. What did Howard Letnick bring to the table?
So he actually has known Trump for quite a while. They have a relationship that dates back decades from just being in New York circles in the 80s and 90s. He was also a fierce defender of Trump on television. And that's how he ended up, in part, getting this job as co-chair of the transition team.
And he developed a really close relationship with Trump over these last few weeks in particular as he was sort of going over the ins and outs of what the administration should look like.
Lutnick had won the backing of some high-profile people in Trump's inner circle.
Over the last week and a half, Trump allies come out in favor of Lutnick for Treasury. And that is Elon Musk, the businessman, and Robert Kennedy Jr., who's now the nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department. And they both came out on social media and said, you know, he's our guy, essentially. And not only that, Musk sort of
directly criticized Besson, arguing that he was a more business-as-usual approach and that he wouldn't shake up the Treasury Department in the way that they wanted him to.
So what's wrong with the business-as-usual approach, according to Besson's critics? And what was it that Letnick was bringing that they felt was more desirable?
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Chapter 6: Who were the other candidates for Treasury Secretary?
And it irritated Trump, according to people that we talked to, to the point where he actually broadened the search at the last minute beyond Lutnick and Besant to include other people like Kevin Warsh, who's the former Fed governor, and Apollo Global Management CEO Mark Rowan.
But ultimately, Trump went with Besant. What made him come to pick him over Lutnik or any of these other folks?
So one thing happened in the interim, which is what he decided to give Lutnik the commerce secretary job. So that ended up taking him out of the running. Notably, he also was giving Lutnik a pretty broad portfolio, including oversight of trade itself. And I just think he wasn't happy with the other candidates. And so I think he decided that his first initial gut instinct was the best one.
How Besant might implement Trump's big economic ideas, that's next.
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Okay, so Trump has nominated Scott Besson for Treasury Secretary. What do we know about Besson's plans if the Senate confirms him for the job?
So Besant did his first interview with the journal just the other day, and he laid out a few things that he's at least in his initial thinking. So the sort of first and biggest thing is making the 2017 tax cuts that Trump oversaw permanent. That's going to be a massive undertaking that's going to unfold in 2025. That's going to involve lots of negotiations with lawmakers.
He also wants to follow through on the campaign promises that Trump made. So that's including eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. And he wants to focus on rolling back regulations, which is at the core of Trump's campaign pledge.
Besson also pitched Trump on a plan to stimulate economic growth. And he gave the idea a catchy name, 3-3-3.
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Chapter 7: What endorsements did Bessent receive during the selection process?
During the campaign, one of the things that he said was that he saw tariffs as a negotiating tool. In a letter to investors, he said, the tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table, but rarely discharged, which is an indication that he believed that these are a useful negotiating tool and a threat, but that you should really only use them when you have to.
That really differs from the way that the president-elect thinks about tariffs. I mean, he got up on the campaign stage time after time and said, I'm going to slap 60% tariffs on China. I'm going to do up to 20% across-the-board tariff on all U.S. imports. He's talked about a 200% or higher tariff on vehicles from Mexico. These were not framed as simply negotiating tactics during the campaign.
Now, I should note, Besant has sort of tried to tweak that position, especially because it was one of the reasons why people were trying to take him down in the final days. And he published an op-ed on Fox News' website just days before the announcement where he basically said that, you know, I'm a true believer on tariffs. And he criticized people who criticized tariffs.
So he said in the op-ed, the reflexive opposition to tariffs represents political ideology and advocacy, not considered economic thought. Hmm. So he's trying to make this sort of economic, academic case for why tariffs are important.
So it sounds like he could go either way on tariffs?
It remains to be seen how he'll actually approach it if he's confirmed and becomes treasury secretary. And my guess is at the end of the day, there's going to be a lot of very spirited fights about this behind the scenes.
What does it say to you that Trump went with him as his treasury secretary?
I think it says that for all the bluster and for all of the campaign rhetoric, Trump wanted a relatively steadying force at the Treasury. And then he was worried that if he picked someone that was a little bit more unknown or didn't have a whole lot of bona fides on Wall Street, that the market would be spooked.
He just really didn't want to see the markets downturn as a result of whoever he chose. And in the days leading up to his decision, he called people on Wall Street and asked for their advice. And the advice that they gave was that Besson would be seen as a sort of steady leader and that they would reassure the markets. And it did.
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