Trump offers billionaire Scott Bessent Treasury role, sources say

CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump has offered the Treasury secretary post to billionaire Scott Bessent, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Bessent, 62, advised Trump on economic policy on the campaign trail and is the founder of the hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. Before that, he was chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, a hedge fund started by Democratic megadonor George Soros. He rose to prominence at the firm for leading efforts to bet against the British pound and Japanese yen that brought the firm billions of dollars in profits.

Allies previously told CNN that Trump liked Bessent’s billionaire bona fides and the fact that he converted to the MAGA movement after working for Soros.

Treasury secretary is seen as the top financial job in any administration and has become a trophy position for many well-heeled Wall Street donors. If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent’s early days on the job could be even more challenging than usual as he faces pressure to address the federal debt limit and Trump campaign promises.

Since Trump’s election victory, the US dollar has risen to a one-year high. The rally “is a vote of confidence in America’s leadership internationally and in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” Bessent said in a November 10 statement he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. Similar rallies in financial markets, he said, were signs that investors “expect the Trump agenda to promote non-inflationary growth that will drive private investment.”

He went on to advocate for Trump to pursue policies that involved deregulation and tax cuts as well as “addressing the debt burden,” which he attributed to “four years of reckless spending.”

However, Bessent did not mention any tariffs in the piece. Trump as a candidate promised to introduce a 60% tariff on goods from China, as well as a 10% tariff on goods from other countries.

In recent interviews with the Financial Times and CNBC, Bessent signaled support for a more gradual approach to tariffs aimed at limiting potential inflationary blowback that could arise from imposing such charges.

As CNN previously reported, Trump cast a wider net for the position in recent days amid bitter contention between Bessent and another top contender for the role, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who is also co-chairing Trump’s transition. The president-elect earlier this week named Lutnick as his choice to lead the Commerce Department.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche, Tami Luhby and Matt Egan contributed to this report.