Behind the scenes of the race between billionaires for US finance minister

“I would like to nominate Scott Bessent to be the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,” President-elect Donald Trump announced on the social network Truth Social on November 22. “Scott is one of the world’s leading investors, as well as a geopolitical and economic strategist, respected by everyone.”

New York Post Citing well-informed sources, Mr. Bessent was selected by Mr. Trump after meeting late on November 21 with the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago resort, Florida.

Mr. Trump’s decision ends the race for businessmen to lead the Treasury Department, the agency in charge of steering the US economy. In this issue, the competition between Mr. Bessent and Mr. Howard Lutnick was so fierce that it was described as a “knife fight”.

Theo WSJMr. Trump had targeted Bessent long before he was elected for a second term. He described Bessent, the founder and chief executive of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, as “one of the greats of Wall Street,” frequently praising the billionaire in conversations with friends and advisers. question.

Bessent and its allies also launched a media campaign to strengthen their position as the leading candidate. The 62-year-old CEO appears on programs that Mr. Trump can watch, write comments, and give interviews to newspapers. Vice President-elect JD Vance and White House chief of staff candidate Susie Willie both lean toward Mr. Bessent.

Bessent’s strongest opponent in the race is billionaire Lutnick, 63 years old, CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, co-chair of the power transition team in charge of finding talent for Mr. Trump. Sources familiar with the matter said Lutnick nominated himself for the position of finance minister and received support from billionaire Elon Musk.

Bessent and Lutnick are both respected by Wall Street. The two candidates openly support Mr. Trump’s economic policies, including unprecedentedly strong tax impositions.

An adviser to Mr. Trump likened the relationship between Bessent and Lutnick to a “cold war”. A few days later, this person said the word “knife fight” more accurately described the competition between the two billionaires.

To gain an advantage with the President-elect, both sides seek every way to promote their advantages, while at the same time digging up the mistakes that their opponents have committed in the past.

Bessent’s allies noted to Mr. Trump that Lutnick once organized an event for Hillary Clinton in New York in 2015. The former US Secretary of State was competing against Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Tickets Attending the event is said to cost $2,700 per person.

Mr. Lutnick’s supporters often mention that Bessent has a close relationship with billionaire George Soros, a major donor to the Democratic Party. Mr. Bessent worked for Mr. Soros for many years, and was funded by this billionaire to found Key Square.

They circulated documents accusing Mr. Bessent of “mismanagement” at Key Square. In response, Mr. Bessent’s camp shared documents proving that Key Square has good profits, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, showing that he has the capacity and can overcome difficult economic conditions.

The competition peaked when Mr. Musk on November 16 posted an opinion on X, saying that Bessent “is just an option for ‘everything as usual’, while Lutnick actually creates change.” . “‘As usual’ is leading to bankruptcy in the US, so we need a change,” Mr. Musk wrote on November 16.

Health secretary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also expressed support for Lutnick. Unhappy that his choices were revealed, Mr. Trump expanded the field of candidates.

On November 17, the power transition team screened and selected three more people, Marc Rowan, founder and CEO of asset management company Apollo Global, and former member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve ( Fed) Kevin Warsh and Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty.

On November 19, Mr. Trump announced his selection of Mr. Lutnick as secretary of commerce. The move implicitly implies that Mr. Trump is the important decision maker, not billionaire Musk or any other influential person.

Hagerty accompanied Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk to the SpaceX rocket launch event in Texas on the morning of November 20, sparking speculation that the Tennessee senator was the one chosen to be the finance minister.

That afternoon, Mr. Trump interviewed Warsh and Rowan at the Mar-a-Lago mansion.

During his first term, Mr. Trump chose Warsh to be the candidate for Fed chairman, but then changed his mind and appointed Jerome Powell, a decision he once expressed regret about. American media said Mr. Trump considered Warsh “smart and handsome”.

Warsh wants to succeed Powell when the Fed chairman leaves office in 2026. The two discussed the scenario of Warsh leading the Treasury Department for more than a year, after which Mr. Trump would nominate him to become Fed chairman. In this scenario, Mr. Bessent would be chairman of the National Economic Council, then succeed Mr. Warsh.

Rowan cut short a business trip in Hong Kong to go to Mar-a-Lago. A well-informed source described the meeting between Rowan and Mr. Trump as friendly, but the Apollo Global CEO did not share the President-elect’s view on the tax issue. Mr. Trump also felt this from Warsh.

Mr. Trump talked to a series of Wall Street executives for advice. Among them is veteran investor John Paulson, who was also considered for the position of finance minister. The president-elect is said to pay attention to how the market reacts to his choice. Advisors added that analysts consider Mr. Bessent to be a stabilizing choice in the government.

On November 22, a few hours before Mr. Trump announced his decision, the leading candidates still did not know whose name the President-elect would call. Sources familiar with the matter said Mr. Trump’s advisers contacted Rowan to see if the CEO really wanted the position of finance minister and received the answer in the affirmative.

At 6:55 p.m. on November 22, about three hours after the market closed, Mr. Trump announced that Bessent would be secretary of finance in the second term administration. This position needs to be approved by the Senate and if approved, Bessent will become the first gay secretary in the Trump administration as well as Republican presidents.