President-elect Donald Trump picks a hedge fund manager to head Treasury and announces several other nominees to top posts. Florida's surgeon general comes out against fluoridating water, a long-standing practice intended to prevent tooth decay.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who has been nominated for Treasury Secretary?
President-elect Donald Trump has announced his choice for Treasury Secretary.
Scott Bessant, a hedge fund manager, will be expected to try to sell Trump's populism to Wall Street.
I'm Ayesha Roscoe.
And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. Scott Bessant once had ties to Democrats, but has emerged as a key Trump advisor in the past year.
He's defended tariffs, which many in the business community oppose.
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Chapter 2: What are Scott Bessant's ties to Trump?
Plus Trump's nominees for several other top positions.
And Florida's Surgeon General urges communities to stop adding fluoride to their drinking water.
Chapter 3: What is Florida's Surgeon General's stance on fluoride?
That's despite decades of research that shows the mineral helps prevent tooth decay.
Stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend. One top Trump nominee for a cabinet position has withdrawn.
But the president-elect has put forth a replacement.
And he's named picks for many other offices at a rapid rate, all with plenty of time before inauguration.
NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving joins us. Ron, good to have you.
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Chapter 4: What cabinet positions are still open after nominations?
Good to be with you, Scott.
Several cabinet nominations last night, Treasury, Labor, Moore. Which name stood out to you?
Treasury is the crown jewel in this collection. It's one of the original four cabinet positions, all the way back to George Washington choosing Alexander Hamilton. Trump has chosen billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Besant. Most people have not heard of him, but that's going to change.
He's going to be in charge of imposing tariffs that Donald Trump insists he wants to have on foreign goods, especially from China. And he'll also be pushing the renewal of Trump's tax cuts from 2017, which are about to expire at the end of 2025. The new boss at the Office of Management and Budget is Russell Vogt. Not a surprise. He had the job for a while in the first Trump term.
He's one of the prime authors of the Project 2025 agenda. That's what the Conservative Heritage Foundation produced as a blueprint for a second Trump term. Trump himself disavowed that document many times during the campaign, but we've already seen some of its authors entering his new administration.
And vote in particular will be in a key position to change the way the federal government does business.
What about labor secretary?
Lori Chavez de Riemer is a Republican member of the House from Oregon who just lost her reelection bid earlier this month, so she will be available in January. She had the backing of Teamsters President Sean O'Brien and was seen as the most pro-labor of the prospects for this job. You may remember O'Brien addressing the GOP convention last summer. and Housing and Urban Development.
Scott Turner was in the first Trump White House. He was director of the Opportunity Revitalization Council there. His job was helping attract business investment to depressed urban areas. Before that, he played for several teams over a nine-year career in the National Football League.
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Chapter 5: How does Scott Bessant plan to address tariffs?
So yesterday morning, the Surgeon General here, Dr. Joseph Latipo, announced new guidelines, and they advised communities not to add fluoride to public drinking supplies. You know, Latipo did acknowledge fluoride is good for your teeth, but he's concerned about other possible health effects.
Like what?
He talked about some recent studies that suggest exposure to high levels of fluoride is associated with lower IQ in kids. And there's a federal toxicology report and researchers said they have moderate confidence there is a link, but they say that's for fluoride levels twice as high as what the U.S. recommends.
And there's also decades of research that show water fluoridation cuts cavities in children and adults and saves billions in dental spending. But Latipo believes that the risks of any added fluoride outweigh the established benefits, especially for some groups.
In this day and age, with the additional sources of fluoride that people have access to, it is public health malpractice to continue adding fluoride to community water systems that pregnant women and children have access to.
That's him speaking on local station Fox 13 in Winter Haven. And that city voted a couple weeks ago to stop adding fluoride to the water supply.
As you mentioned, fluoride levels in a lot of these studies have been higher than what's recommended for U.S. drinking water, given that what's been the reaction.
Well, some support Latipo's recommendation, but I've also talked to dentists and pediatricians who strongly oppose it, including Dr. Jeff Otley, president of the Florida Dental Association.
Fluoride has been researched for more than 80 years, and the overwhelming, credible scientific evidence consistently indicates that fluoridation of community water supply is safe at optimal levels and effective at preventing and repairing tooth decay.
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