SPECIAL REPORT: Trump Nominates Scott Bessent To Lead US Treasury

President-elect Donald Trump said he is nominating Scott Bessent, who runs macro hedge fund Key Square Group, as the next US Treasury Secretary, enlisting a key adviser to manage the sweeping economic agenda he has vowed to enact in a second term. Bloomberg Balance of Power hosts Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz offer instant reaction.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Kaylee Lines alongside Joe Matthew. We have gotten confirmation
of what Bloomberg had already reported. The President elect Donald
Trump is nominating Scott besson of Key Square Group to
be the Secretary of the Treasury. Donald Trump in his
statement posted on True Social describing him as someone who
has long been a strong advocate of the America First agenda.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Joe, we actually spent some time with the sixty two
year old Scott Bessett right here at this table in Washington,
d C. Kaylee, not that long ago when it was
still unclear who was going to win the election, and
of course since then we've heard any number of names
bandied about. Scott Bessett has always been on the shortlist.
We spent some time talking about his relationship with Donald
Trump and what Donald Trump's relationship with the Federal Reserve

(00:53):
will be.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Let's listen, here's a deep understanding of financial markets as
opposed to most politicians. He wants to be involved in
the conversation. He has very well formed opinions, is a
lot of private sector friends, so he just wants to
be a voice.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Just part of our conversation that touched on a lot
of themes Kayley. One thing that Scott Bessont was able
to do was to convince the markets, to convince the
news media that this idea of combining tariffs and tax
cuts could result in meaningful growth. This is an idea
that has had many from the economists to market watchers
here in Washington suggests that it could bring great deficits

(01:36):
to Washington d C. Scott Besson has been very effective
and arguing against that idea to the point where Donald
Trump thought he was the messenger for this job.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, and it's going to remain to be seen to
what extent it is Scott Besson's voice in the role
of Treasury Secretary, if he is indeed confirmed for it,
that will be the most defining or authorative on economic policy.
Keeping in mind here that someone else who was in
contention for this position, Howard Lutnik, has been named to
be Secretary of Commerce, with according to the President elect,
jurisdiction over trade and tariffs specifically, so how these departments

(02:07):
will be working together in order to make Donald Trump's
campaign agenda and actual reality is something we'll be watching
here as well as those who will have yet to
be named two top economic positions, including on the National
Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisors. In part,
in the statement Donald Trump has just put out on
True Social he has described that Besson's role will be

(02:28):
about putting the US fully in a position of the
world's leading economy and the center of innovation in entrepreneur
He goes on to say that America will have the
greatest economic boom, and the great people of the United
States of America essentially will be benefiting from Scott Besson's
Treasury secretary.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well ensure that no Americans will be left behind the
next and greatest economic boom. Glowing comments as you would
expect from the President elect here talking about somebody, by
the way, who is a They've spent a lot of
time together talking about economic philosophy. Scott Bessont worked throughout
the course of this campaign as an economic advisor to

(03:08):
Donald Trump, and in fact helped to craft some of
the speeches that were directed most specifically at the economy.
Assuming that he has confirmed Kayley, we should also note
the fact that he would be the first openly gay
Treasury secretary in American history. As the seventy ninth secretary
of the US Treasury.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, certainly historical, historically significant. And as you talk about
this notion of friendship and having the ear of the
president elect, someone else who does, as we've come to understand,
is Elon Musk, who, actually, if we all recall, just
days ago, wade in on the jockeying for Treasury and
described Bessant as a business as usual choice. He was
advocating for Howard Lutnik, but he said business as usual

(03:46):
is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way
or another. Clearly, Donald Trump has not sided with Elon
Musk on this, as he is named Bessett now to
be a Treasury secretary. But I wonder if business as
usual is actually what financial markets will have been looking for.
And we'll have to wait and see the reaction to
this pick when futures open on Sunday Eason, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
We have to wait till six pm on Sunday. Now,
interesting timing how this all dropped. The markets will have
the weekend to decipher this. We have seen, by the way,
a bit of a drop in bitcoin, which is the
one thing that we can kind of factor in. We
talked a lot about though, the impact that immigration or
the relationship that immigration has with our job market, and
the impact that a mass deportation might have. Here's what

(04:30):
Scott Besson had to say about it.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
In this cycle, when we had the massive inflation we get,
whether it's eleven million new arrivals or as President Trump thinks,
twenty one million new arrivals, it does push down wages
on the bottom quintile, which I think is abominable. These
are working people Americans who are seeing their wages get
pushed down.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
But of course, as we consider the prospect of mass
deportation of a lot of the economic policies, including around
taxes that Donald Trump has talked about, it is not
going to be entirely up to individuals like the President
or the Secretary of the Treasury to actually enact those policy.
There has to be a relationship here with Congress, who
has authority over a lot of these monetary matters. So
the relationship that Vessett will have on Capitol Hill is

(05:17):
something to watch. In fact, most immediately his ability to
get confirmed by those on a Capitol Hill in the
US sense.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
That's right, and after some of the other more controversial
names that we've been talking about. This is not considered
to be a very heavy lift for the transition team
in achieving this confirmation. We'll have a long way to
go here talking about this and the relationship that the
Treasury will have with the Commerce Department suddenly now overseeing
the US Trade Representative when it comes to tariffs. This
is going to be an interesting combination.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, and that reminds us that we still have yet
to learn who the next US Trade Representative will be,
who will lead the National Economic Council, have those roles
inside the White House that also could be formative in
the actual defining of policy and the implementation of it.
But this was a large selection for a president elect
who campaigned almost entirely on the issue of the economy.

(06:04):
We knew he was taking the role of Treasury Secretary
very seriously. He took his time in making this decision.
But now we've understood and we've learned that it is
Scott Bessant who ultimately gets the nomination.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Interviews at mar A Lago on Wednesday with Bessint with
Warsh with Rowan clearly with three boxes to check, Maga
Wall Street and ready for TV. Donald Trump has made
his pick Scott Bessett, now officially the nominee for Treasury
Department