Trump has been hasty in choosing many cabinet positions. It took him longer to settle into the Treasury position

WASHINGTON – the elected president Donald Trump started the blitz chooses for his cabinetbut he took his time before settling on billionaire investor Scotty Bessenti as his nominee for Treasury Secretary.

The Republican not only wanted someone who agreed with him, but also an official who could execute him economic vision and at the same time watch directly from the central casting. With his Yale education and pedigree trading for Soros Fund Management before starting his own funds, Bessent will be tasked with a delicate balancing act.

Trump expects help from him reset the global trade order, deliver trillions of dollars in tax cuts inflation remains under controlmanage growing public debt and maintain confidence in financial markets.

“Scott will support my policies that promote U.S. competitiveness and end unfair trade imbalances, and work to build an economy that puts growth first, especially through our future dominance in global energy,” Trump said in a statement.

But for all the confidence, Trump was cautious about choosing the 62-year-old, suggesting he understood the stakes after winning a presidential election largely shaped by inflation, which will hit a four-decade peak in 2022. He was comfortable making faster decisions about Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — Health Affairs and Human Resources Secretary.

His choice of Bessent was at odds with billionaire Elon Musk, who co-chairs Trump’s advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency initiative. The Tesla and SpaceX executive posted on his social network X before Trump’s selection that Bessent would be “the choice as always.”

The election also revealed the internal tensions of a candidate who won by appealing to blue-collar workers, but who depends on an administration staffed by those who, like Trump, enjoy a life of extreme wealth.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was not impressed by Bessent.

“Donald Trump pretends to be an economic populist, but it wouldn’t be the Trump Treasury Department without a wealthy political donor running the show,” Wyden said in a statement released shortly after the announcement Friday night. “When it comes to the economy, Trump’s government is built for the super-rich.”

Bessent caught Trump’s attention during the campaign with his ideas for 3% growth, a reduction in the budget deficit equal to 3% of gross domestic product and 3 million additional barrels per day of oil production. Larry Kudlow, a TV host and director of the White House National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, endorsed him. But critics in Trump’s orbit said Bessent was weak on tariffs.

Another former contender, Howard Lutnykthe billionaire CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald was more pro-tariffs but less reassuring to some business leaders. Trump appointed him to lead the Department of Commerce and manage trade issues.

Trump also considered other candidates, including former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, Mark Rowan, chief executive of Apollo Global Management, and Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.

Trump’s decision on the Treasury chief is in part tied to the biggest motivation for most Republican voters to return him to the White House: the state of the U.S. economy and high price pressures.

According to AP VoteCastpoll of roughly 120,000 voters across the country in early November, roughly 3 in 10 voters said they wanted a complete upheaval in the country’s governance. Bessent has been sharply critical of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, saying in a speech at the conservative Manhattan Institute that he was “alarmed” by the scale of government spending and deficits, and that Biden had adopted a “central planning” mindset that he believed belonged to him. “the dump of history”.

Biden, for his part, chose Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve System, to be his Treasury secretary, relying on her credentials as an economist as his administration successfully advanced $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief in 2021. But inflation has picked up as the United States recovers from a pandemic shutdown due to supply chain problems, global conflicts and — critics of the Biden administration say — an excessive amount of pandemic aid.

Policymakers and economists are uncertain about what Trump will prioritize. The Republican advocated for higher tariffs against China and other trading partners. But people in his economic orbit privately insist that he cares about a fair playing field in which other countries, such as China, do not put the United States at a disadvantage by subsidizing industry, manipulating the currency and suppressing the wages of their workers.

The president-elect wants to extend and extend his 2017 tax cuts, many of which expire after 2025. He also proposed a number of tax cuts, such as no taxes on tips or overtime pay or Social Security benefits, which would create a possible increase in the deficit.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent fiscal watchdog, estimated that Trump could add $1.7 trillion to $15.6 trillion to projected deficits over 10 years, reflecting uncertainty about his economic plans.

Economist Olivier Blanchard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, laid out the contradictions of Trumponomics this week. Deficit-financed tax cuts and tariff hikes can cause inflation, but Trump won the election in November in large part because of voters’ disillusionment with inflation. He also promises to deport undocumented immigrants, which could reduce employment, although it is unclear what Trump will do once he takes office.

“The U.S. needs to think about deficit reduction, regardless of Trump,” Blanchard said during the webcast. “Trump is likely to make things worse.”

Trump’s Treasury Secretary may eventually face additional responsibility in trying to pressure Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to do as Trump wants, as the inflationary pressures outlined by Blanchard likely mean the Fed will try to slow growth to keep inflation from overheating. which is likely to upset Trump.

“The risk of conflict between the Trump administration and the Fed is very high,” Blanchard said during the webcast.

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