Two men with backgrounds in business and finance appear to be leading contenders for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department.
Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick are reportedly being considered for the role, which is one of the most powerful Cabinet positions in the White House. They would succeed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who oversaw the economic return from the pandemic and presided over the agency during the worst bout of inflation since the early 1980s.
Bessent, 62, and Lutnick, 63, are prominent in the financial world. They are reportedly the top candidates for the Treasury spot, although Trump has demonstrated an ability to surprise with nominees, as in his choice to nominate former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
Polymarket, an online platform for wagers on elections and other political drama, put the implied odds of Bessent being Trump’s pick at 68%, giving Lutnick a 30% shot at being nominated for the influential role.
The jockeying for Treasury chief narrowed after billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson withdrew his name from contention this week.
Scott Bessent
Bessent is a well-known hedge fund manager who founded the New York-based investment firm Key Square Group. Some Trump advisers are pushing for his nomination, according to Bloomberg.
The South Carolina native attended Yale College, graduating in 1984. He joined Soros Fund Management in the 1980s and worked his way up the totem pole at the firm.
Bessent’s ties to the fund might come as a surprise given that it is founded by billionaire George Soros, a liberal financier who has become something of a bogeyman on the Right and is one of the most powerful donors in U.S. politics.
Bessent eventually made his way to becoming the chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management. He left the firm in 2015 to start Key Square Group.
Bessent has donated to candidates of both major parties over the years, including hosting a fundraiser for then-presidential contender Al Gore in 2000. He has grown increasingly close to Trump in recent years, donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee after the president-elect’s first win in 2016.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bessent is a close economic adviser to Trump and has urged Trump to embrace a “3-3-3” policy, which would mean pushing for 3% gross domestic product growth, cutting the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2028, and increasing energy production by the equivalent of 3 million barrels of oil per day.
Trump has publicly praised Bessent and, in a speech before the Detroit Economic Club, referred to him as “one of the top analysts on Wall Street.”
Howard Lutnick
Lutnick is the billionaire chairman and CEO of financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick has appealed directly to Trump for the role in recent days, according to the Wall Street Journal. Lutnick currently serves as co-chairman of the presidential transition team.
Lutnick is a native of Long Island and went on to graduate from Haverford College, a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, in 1983 with a degree in economics.
Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald right after college and, much like Bessent, quickly rose through the ranks, becoming president and CEO of the firm in 1991. He was named chairman of the board just five years later.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks left a profound mark on Lutnick’s life. Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices were located above the 100th floor of the North Tower, and there were no survivors from the attack. In total, 658 of the firm’s 960 employees at the time were killed in the attack, including Lutnick’s brother, Gary.
Lutnick would have been in the offices that day but survived because he was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten.
In 2004, he spun off BGC Partners from Cantor Fitzgerald, and it became its own financial services firm, where Lutnick also serves as chairman and CEO.
Now, Lutnick is a close personal adviser to Trump and spoke at the president-elect’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York. Lutnick reportedly works from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. with his companies and then volunteers for the Trump transition team before returning to working on his companies from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
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Trump has already selected several members of his Cabinet, who will face confirmation in the Republican-held Senate.
So far, he chose Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to lead the State Department, Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Gaetz for attorney general, and Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) for Homeland Security.