President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that he’ll nominate billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, an advocate for deficit reduction, to serve as his next Treasury secretary.
Trump also said he would nominate Russel Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position Vought held during Trump’s first presidency.
Bessent, 62, served for years as a top money manager for George Soros, a billionaire donor to Democrats. Bessent is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on and off for Soros Fund Management since 1991.
He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending.
“This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then.
Hussein and Rugaber write for the Associated Press. AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.