Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor

WASHINGTON — 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, one of several personnel decisions that he unveiled as he closed out the workweek. Trump also said he would nominate Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the same position he held during Trump’s first presidency. He also said he would nominate Scott Turner, a former football player who worked in Trump’s first administration, to serve as his housing secretary. Bessent previously told Bloomberg that he views tariffs as a “one time price adjustment” and “not inflationary,” and he said tariffs imposed during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as renewing “a consensus of America as a nation under God.” The Center for Renewing America released its own 2023 budget proposal entitled “A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government.” The proposal envisioned $11.3 trillion worth of spending reductions over 10 years and about $2 trillion in income tax cuts in order to bring the budget into surplus by 2032.