By James Franey and Victor Nava
President-elect Donald Trump named hedge fund mogul Scott Bessent as the next Treasury secretary on Friday, ending a rough-and-tumble race that saw fierce jockeying among power players across Wall Street.
“I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,” Trump wrote in his announcement, posted on Truth Social.
“Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists,” the president-elect said of this Treasury pick.
Bessent “got the thumbs up” late Thursday during a meeting with Trump, 78, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., one source close to the situation told The Post.
A flurry of last-minute media reports had floated several candidates for the job. Late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that financier Kevin Warsh had met with Trump on Wednesday about the Treasury post — and possibly replacing Jerome Powell as Fed chairman when his term expires in 2026.
Trump also met about the Treasury role with Marc Rowan, the billionaire boss of buyout firm Apollo Global Management, at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.
Bessent, the 62-year-old founder of Key Square Group, has repeatedly backed the president-elect’s pro-tariff stance in a series of op-eds and media appearances over the past year.
“Scott’s story is that of the American Dream,” Trump said Friday, noting that Bessent “has long been a strong advocate of the America First Agenda.”
“On the eve of our Great Country’s 250th Anniversary, he will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the World’s leading Economy, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the World,” he added.
“Unlike in past Administrations, we will ensure that no Americans will be left behind in the next and Greatest Economic Boom, and Scott will lead that effort for me, and the Great People of the United States of America.”