US Treasury files hacked by China, Biden issues cybersecurity order
Chinese hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department between September and November 2024, gaining access to more than 3,000 files, including documents from high-ranking Treasury officials, according to testimony provided to lawmakers on Wednesday, Jan. 15. The breach impacted unclassified files, including those belonging to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo.
Treasury and law enforcement officials told members of Congress that the hack exploited a vulnerability in a third-party product used by the Treasury’s vendor, BeyondTrust.
The company alerted the government to the breach in December 2024. Officials confirmed that 419 Treasury computers were compromised, according to the testimony.
This breach comes amid escalating concerns about cybersecurity, particularly regarding Chinese hacking activities. In response to these growing threats, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Thursday. Jan. 16, aimed at tightening security standards for companies that do business with the U.S. government.
The new executive order requires software providers who contract with the government to demonstrate the security of their products. This includes stringent security measures for cloud providers and internet-connected devices.
Starting in 2027, the U.S. government will only purchase products that carry the new “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark.” The new label certifies a device’s security.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned that China’s cyber capabilities represent “the defining threat of our generation.” In a recent interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Wray described China’s cyber program as the largest in the world, surpassing every other nation combined. He emphasized the risks posed by China’s extensive data theft and its ability to infiltrate critical infrastructure.
As lawmakers and officials continue to address these cybersecurity challenges, the focus is on improving the security of government systems and the products used by contractors. The Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen cybersecurity protocols underscore the increasing urgency of defending against foreign cyber threats.
US offers $25M reward for info leading to Maduro’s arrest as third term begins
The U.S. State Department is now offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move to raise the bounty from its initial $15 million came as Maduro was sworn in for his third term as president on Friday, Jan. 10, despite evidence that he lost the election to opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez in July 2024.
The Biden administration does not recognize Maduro as the rightful president of Venezuela, and has said that he should step down, saying that the exiled Gonzalez should take his place.
Gonzalez has presented thousands of public vote tallies that show he handily won the presidential election, and he recently met with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. to thank Biden for his support.
Gonzalez is facing the threat of arrest if he returns to Venezuela. Additionally, the country’s defense minister rejects any notion that Gonzalez should be president. The defense minister said that Venezuela’s armed forces would only recognize Maduro as president.
The White House said that the reward for Maduro’s arrest is meant to show “solidarity with the Venezuelan people” and put pressure on Maduro and his allies.
The U.S. State Department also raised the arrest bounty on Venezuela’s interior minister from $10 million to $25 million and added a new reward of $15 million for the capture of the country’s defense minister.
The U.S. Treasury Department also announced on Friday that it is placing new sanctions on eight Venezuelan officials to freeze any assets they have in the United States.
‘You’re not fired.’ Trump says he won’t try to remove Fed Chair Jerome Powell
In his first broadcast interview since the election, President-elect Donald Trump put to bed the notion he’d try to fire the chair of the Federal Reserve before his term expires in 2026. NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump during the hour-long exchange if he would try to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“No, I don’t think so,” Trump replied. “I think if I told him to, he would, but if I asked him to, he probably wouldn’t, but if I told him to, he would.”
“You don’t have plans to do that, right?” Welker followed up.
“No, I don’t,” Trump responded.
Trump’s response implies Powell is safe in his seat, not that he had any plans to leave. After the election, a reporter asked Powell if he would leave his post if Trump asked him to.
“No,” Powell said.
Trump first appointed Powell to chair the Fed during his first term. However, that relationship quickly soured when Trump disagreed with the Fed’s interest rate moves.
“I put a very good man in the Fed,” Trump said in 2018. “I don’t necessarily agree with it, because he’s raising interest rates.”
The relationship soon became downright contentious. Since then, President Joe Biden nominated Powell for a second term as chair, which means his term is not up until 2026, well into Trump’s second term.
Trump has repeatedly said he believes he could do a better job than the Federal Reserve. He said he also wants a bigger say in Fed decisions.
“I made a lot of money, I was very successful, and I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman,” he said in August 2024.
“I think it’s the greatest job in government,” Trump said in October 2024. “You show up to the office once a month and you say, ‘Let’s see, flip a coin.’ And everybody talks about you like you’re a god.”
“He’s right. The part about it being the greatest job, it might well be right,” Powell said during the Dealbook summit in December 2024. “He’s partly right there, but he’s not right about the come to work, you know, once every month.”
Powell added, “It’s not like that,” when asked about the flip-a-coin part. In that sit-down, Powell talked with Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin about navigating another Trump term and his cabinet picks, in particular, Trump’s Treasury choice, Scott Bessent.
“You could do the earliest Fed nomination and create a shadow Fed chair,” Bessent told Barron’s. “And based on the concept of forward guidance, no one is really going to care what Jerome Powell has to say anymore.”
“I don’t think that’s on the table at all,” Powell said.
He described the critical relationship that the Fed chair and Treasury secretary must maintain, especially in times of crisis. He shared that the two people in these leadership positions have had weekly meals together for 75 years.
Powell’s term ends on May 15, 2026. Former Fed governor Kevin Warsh is among the candidates to replace him. Warsh was recently passed over for Trump’s Treasury secretary.
Trump taps Jamieson Greer for USTR to push ambitious tariff policies
President-elect Donald Trump made a cabinet pick Tuesday, Nov. 26, that will play a crucial role in his second administration. Trump announced trade attorney Jamieson Greer will be his U.S. trade representative, overseeing the policy central to his campaign.
Greer served as an Air Force lawyer and eventually transitioned to trade. He is a protégé of Robert Lighthizer, the USTR during Trump’s first term. The two worked together before Trump was elected in 2016, and Lighthizer brought Greer on to serve as his chief of staff when he assumed the role in the administration.
Greer spent most of the time behind the scenes while Lighthizer was front and center during Trump’s first administration. Lighthizer is noticeably absent as the president-elect fills his cabinet this time around. He’s been passed over for Commerce Secretary, Treasury Secretary and now his previous post is being filled by his chief of staff.
In a statement posted to Truth Social, Trump said Greer played a key role during his first term, “imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices, and replacing the failed NAFTA deal with USMCA.”
Trump added Greer will focus “on reining in the Country’s massive Trade Deficit, defending American Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Services, and opening up Export Markets everywhere.”
Greer will have a full plate if his nomination is confirmed. On Monday, Nov. 25, Trump announced in a Truth Social post that on his first day as president, he’ll sign an executive order charging Mexico and Canada a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States.
Beyond implementing the policy, existing trade deals that Trump negotiated could cause a bit of a headache for Greer according to trade experts.
“It is a violation of the USMCA. The U.S. just basically said, ‘Oops, we are going to impose these tariffs no matter what our treaty says,’” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics specializing in U.S. trade flows and U.S.-China trade, said.
The president-elect also announced an additional 10% tariff on China related to the fentanyl crisis, with more action on China expected. Politico reports Greer was instrumental in negotiating Phase One of the U.S.-China trade deal and the USMCA.
Tariffs are arguably the most prominent economic policy touted by Trump as he ran for a second term. He’s floating tariffs as high as 60% or more on China. If prior comments are any indication, Greer will aggressively enforce the president’s agenda.
In congressional testimony, Greer said Trump’s tariffs on China, “generally were not passed on to consumers and economic indicators such as unemployment, inflation and per capita GDP thrived during the height of the ‘trade war.’”
“There is no silver bullet, and in some cases the effort to pursue strategic decoupling from China will cause short-term pain,” Greer wrote. “However, the cost of doing nothing or underestimating the threat posed by China is far greater.”
The president-elect also announcedKevin Hassett would serve as the director of the White House National Economic Council. Hassett was a senior adviser during the first Trump administration. Before Trump, Hassett advised every Republican nominee for president since 2004.
Trump said Hassett “played a crucial role in helping to design and pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.”
“He will play an important role in helping American families recover from the Inflation that was unleashed by the Biden Administration. Together, we will renew and improve our record Tax Cuts, and ensure that we have Fair Trade with Countries that have taken advantage of the United States in the past,” Trump said about Hassett’s future role.
Trump plans new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China over drugs, migrants
President-elect Donald Trump vows to hit Canada, Mexico and China with new tariffs on their products coming into the U.S. And TSA is laying out its expectations as the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.
Trump plans new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China over drugs, migrants
President-elect Donald Trump has announced some of the first executive orders he plans to issue on day one of his administration. Trump said he will make good on a campaign promise by raising tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico – the latter two being the top trading partners of the U.S. – due to illegal border crossings and drugs entering the country.
Trump made the announcements Monday night, Nov. 25, on his Truth Social platform. He targeted Canada and Mexico first.
The president-elect said on his first day in office, he will impose a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States from those two countries, which account for 30% of trade volumes. Trump said the tariffs will remain in effect until drugs, specifically fentanyl, and illegal immigrants stop crossing into the U.S.
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) November 26, 2024
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump said. “We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
In a second post on Truth Social, Trump turned his attention to China, saying he’ll charge China an additional 10% above any other tariffs on all their products coming into the U.S.
While he said he has had many talks with Chinese officials about drugs being sent into the U.S., Trump said nothing has changed. He added, “Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before.”
Reaction has been coming in from the countries affected by Trump’s tariff plans.
Chinese Embassy Spokesperson Liu Pengyu said, “China believes that China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade or a tariff war.”
In a joint statement, Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, and public safety minister, Dominic LeBlancr, said, “Canada and the United States have one of the strongest and closest relationships – particularly when it comes to trade and border security. Canada places the highest priority on border security and the integrity of our shared border.”
Ricardo Monreal, Mexico’s lower house leader for the ruling party, responded in a post on X, saying, “The imposition of a possible tariff on Mexican products goes against the United States–Mexico–Canada agreement and does not solve the common problems of the border between Mexico and the United States…escalating trade retaliation would only hurt the people’s pocketbooks.”
Scott Bessent, Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary — who says tariffs would not add to inflation — supports the move, but many economists forecast tariffs would increase prices for U.S. consumers.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated over the summer the tariff plan Trump promised on the campaign trail, which included 60% tariffs on Chinese goods, would cost the typical U.S. household more than $2,600 a year.
A CNBC analysis said retail chains like Five Below and Dollar Tree, along with online outlet Wayfair, would be some of the most vulnerable companies when it comes to a trade war.
Meanwhile, multiple reports said President-elect Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday night following the social media posts. The reports said the two had a “good conversation” about trade and border security.
Federal judge dismisses Trump’s 2020 election interference charges
Special Counsel Jack Smith has dropped all federal charges against President-elect Trump in connection with attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. He filed the motion Monday and a federal judge granted it within hours.
A different judge had already dismissed the federal charges against Trump for mishandling classified documents. Smith was appealing that decision before he dropped those charges as well on Monday.
The Justice Department’s longstanding position that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime is set to apply to Trump once he takes office again in January, which is why Smith decided to give up the cases against him.
On Truth Social, Trump posted, “I persevered, against all odds, and won.”
FBI agent acquitted in 2020 shooting arrested on sexual assault charges
An FBI agent has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting two women, according to police in Montgomery County, Maryland. Authorities there also said they believe there might be other victims out there.
Valdivia is now suspended from the FBI pending the outcome of this case.
This is not his first brush with the law. In 2020, prosecutors charged Valdivia with attempted murder in an off-duty shooting on a metro train in Bethesda, Maryland. A Montgomery County jury found him not guilty in that case in 2022.
Macy’s says employee hid $154M in expenses, delays Q3 report
Macy’s said one employee intentionally created so many accounting inconsistencies it had to delay its quarterly report.
While the department store chain said it saw stronger-than-expected sales from July to October this year, it also discovered a now-former employee hid up to $154 million in expenses over nearly three years. The company said the issue was related to delivery expenses in one of its accrual accounts.
Macy’s delayed its third-quarter earnings report after the retailer said an employee hid up to $154 million in delivery expenses over several years, prompting an investigation https://t.co/7PlNTb2qp0
While the questionable expenses only account for a small fraction of the $4.36 billion in delivery expenses during that almost three-year period, the company found the errors to be significant enough to delay reporting its full quarterly earnings.
That report was originally set to be released Tuesday, Nov. 26. It has now been pushed back until Dec. 11.
TSA preparing for ‘busiest Thanksgiving ever’ for air travel
Thanksgiving travel is taking off and this year is expected to be another for the record books. The Transportation Security Administration said it’s ready for the rush and expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports from Tuesday through next Monday, Dec. 2.
Today we kick off our busiest travel week of the year! Flying to visit with family or friends? Start your packing with an empty bag. Leftover items from past adventures often include prohibited items. Unsure what’s allowed in your carry-on or checked bag? Send a DM to our @AskTSA… pic.twitter.com/kduiVqKY5a
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Dec. 1, is expected to be the busiest day for air travel. The TSA estimates more than three million people are likely to pass through their checkpoints that day alone.
The word went viral after a video was posted on TikTok by user @JoolsLebron in August. Dictionary.com said demure saw a nearly 1,200% increase in usage in digital web media alone from January to the end of August, mainly attributed to the video.
The website said while demure was traditionally used to describe those who are reserved and quiet, the new usage seen on social media is meant to describe refined and sophisticated appearance or behavior.
Former Democratic donor and Soros partner is Trump’s pick for Treasury
Elon Musk criticized him as the “business-as-usual choice” for Treasury, but markets are cheering on routine. President-elect Donald Trump announced Scott Bessent is his pick for Treasury secretary, ending an internal battle over the top economic post that some described as a knife fight.
But there’s a bullet point in Bessent’s resume that has rubbed some on the Right the wrong way. He’s the former chief investment officer for liberal billionaire George Soros, once a partner at Soros Fund Management and a major Democratic donor.
He’s since switched his donations to the Right. In 2015, Bessent founded the hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. In 2016, he donated to the Trump campaign.
Trump has described him as “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.”
The flattery is mutual.
“I’ve been in the investment business 35 years and Donald Trump is the most sophisticated leader on economics that I’ve met,” Bessent said on Fox Business before being tapped as Treasury secretary.
Bessent hasn’t been a mainstay of Trump’s inner circle like a lot of his other cabinet picks. Instead, the hedge fund manager reportedly won over the president-elect with his 3-3-3 plan:
Cut the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by the final year of Trump’s term. It’s about 6% today.
Boost GDP growth to 3%. Real GDP growth was 3% in the second quarter of 2024 and a third-quarter advance estimate has it at 2.8%.
Get Big Oil to boost production by another 3 million barrels of crude per day.
Bessent gets the Treasury nod as a deficit hawk just as the national debt crossed the $36 trillion mark. But he isn’t just making his mark in budgets. Earlier this year, he was behind the controversial proposal to have Trump nominate a shadow Federal Reserve chair to undermine current chair Jerome Powell.
“Trump could just nominate and confirm the next Fed chair, after Jay Powell, and just have this Fed chair go around and give all sorts of speeches and influence the markets,” the Fed Guy Joseph Wang explained to Straight Arrow News. “In that way, that’s very creative. I don’t know that it will happen.”
A Treasury secretary runner-up, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, has also been floated as the man to replace Powell as Fed chair when his term expires.
As for Bessent, investors seemed to like the moderate pick on Monday, Nov. 25, the first trading day since the announcement.
Trump rounds out his cabinet with picks to lead USDA, CDC, FDA
President-elect Donald Trump continued to stock his cabinet in quick fashion over the weekend. And as travel cranks up before Thanksgiving, stormy weather might hamper some people’s plans. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Monday, Nov. 25, 2024.
Trump rounds out his cabinet with picks to lead USDA, CDC, FDA
Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump rounded out his cabinet selections. He picked several names to fill key roles in his second administration.
Trump selected Brooke Rollins as the secretary of agriculture. Rollins served under Trump in his first term, first as the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental and Technology Initiatives and then later as the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Rollins, a Texas lawyer, is currently the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank consisting of former Trump staff members. As agriculture secretary, Rollins would oversee the 10,000 employees of the USDA and be only the second woman to lead this department.
Trump also chose hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for treasury secretary. Bessent is the founder of investment firm Key Square Capital Management and has recently become one of Trump’s top economic advisers.
He is a former protégé of Democratic donor George Soros and was once the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management. As treasury secretary, Bessent would oversee Trump’s tax policies and the nation’s sanctions programs.
During Trump’s first term, Turner served as the first executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. Turner is currently the chair for the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute.
President-elect Trump also announced his choices for three top health positions.
Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, has been tapped to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Makary would oversee the FDA’s $7 billion budget and report to Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Former Florida Congressman Dr. Dave Weldon is Trump’s pick to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weldon is a physician and Army veteran who served in the House from 1995 to 2009.
Finally, Trump picked Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to be the next U.S. Surgeon General. The doctor is a Fox News contributor and the medical director of CityMD, a network of urgent centers in New York and New Jersey.
All of these positions will need Senate confirmation.
Israel and Hezbollah trade attacks as cease-fire deal is in the works
Monday morning, Nov. 25, reports said Hezbollah attacked Galilee from Lebanon, while Israel continued to focus on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
⭕️ 12 Hezbollah command centers were struck by the IAF in Dahieh, Beirut, including sites used by Hezbollah's Intelligence Unit, coast-to-sea missile unit, and Unit 4400—responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran through Syria into Lebanon.
The latest round of attacks started with an Israeli strike on Beirut Saturday night, Nov. 23, that left more than two dozen people dead, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Hezbollah responded to that strike by launching more than 200 rockets and drones at Israel, marking one of the heaviest bombardments of Israel since fighting intensified in September.
Israel said its goal is to return tens of thousands of people home, who evacuated from the northern part of the country due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on Beirut have led the Lebanese education ministry to postpone school there until January.
On Sunday, Nov. 24, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said a U.S. cease-fire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.
At least 1 killed after cargo plane crashes, skids into home in Lithuania
The flight had taken off from Germany and crashed around 5:30 a.m. local time while approaching its final destination in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Officials said the person who was killed was a member of the flight crew but was not a pilot. Three other people on board were injured. Nobody on the ground got hurt.
Officials said at least 12 people had to be evacuated from the home.
Investigators are looking into the cause of the crash and have not yet ruled out it being an act of terrorism.
Winter storms expected across the U.S. this Thanksgiving week
In California, where two bodies were recovered from floodwaters on Saturday, authorities are bracing for more downpours while still dealing with flooding and landslides from last week’s “bomb cyclone.” On top of that, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, Nov. 26, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 MPH. That area is expected to get up to four feet of snow by Wednesday. Nov. 27.
Periods of rain showers are expected for the Valley through Wednesday. 1 to 2 feet of additional snow up to 4 feet at the highest peaks is forecast to fall on the mountains. Make sure to travel safe and visit https://t.co/WjKBsJmSfA for updates! #CAwxpic.twitter.com/QyrmHZJFzR
Forecasters said the Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday, while the east coast will feel the effects on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
So far, this upcoming weekend is shaping up to have pretty clear conditions for travelers heading home.
Biden set to issue his final Thanksgiving turkey pardon
President Joe Biden will take part in a Thanksgiving tradition at the White House Monday: his final turkey pardon.
The two lucky birds getting spared this year are Peach and Blossom from Minnesota. They got to live in the lap of luxury at the famed Willard Intercontinental Washington hotel near the White House while waiting for their permanent clemency from becoming a Thanksgiving feast.
The annual pardon of the turkeys will take place at 11 a.m. ET. The birds will then return to Minnesota to live out their days on a farm.
‘Wicked’ has best opening weekend for Broadway to film adaption
It was a magical weekend at the box office as the movie “Wicked” proved to be quite popular with audiences.
The film, based on the Broadway hit about the land of Oz before, during and after Dorothy’s famous visit, was number one in North America. It raked in $114 million, making it the third-biggest domestic opening of the year.
The film, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is now the number one Broadway-to-film adaptation and ranks fourth for the biggest debuts for a musical in history.
Trump’s transition team tussles over choice for top economic post
It’s the most important pick for President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda. Now it appears Trump is having second thoughts about his treasury secretary options.
The Treasury secretary acts as the president’s closest economic advisor and is fifth in the presidential line of succession. The person who holds this cabinet post will play a key role in helping Trump carry out his agendas on tax cuts and tariffs.
The president-elect’s search for a Treasury secretary is expanding this week after reports of infighting in Trump’s camp over the selection.
Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent have been floated as the final two candidates but they are now joined by two more names, Marc Rowan and Kevin Warsh.
Howard Lutnick
Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is Trump’s transition co-chair and has had a big say in how Trump’s cabinet has shaped up so far. The two have known each other for decades and Lutnick fundraised for Trump during a critical part of the campaign. He’s also a big proponent of Trump’s tariff policies.
“Tariffs are an amazing tool by the president to use. They’re an amazing tool, but he understands, don’t tariff stuff we don’t make,” Lutnick said on CNBC. “If we don’t make it and you want to buy it, I don’t want to put the price up there. It’s pointless. But use tariffs to build in America. If we want to make it in America, tariff it, or if we’re competing with it, tariff it. But you gotta remember, we need to protect the American worker. Finally, someone’s going to protect the American worker.”
But will he get his desired post of Treasury secretary? The New York Times reports Lutnick has gotten on Trump’s nerves lately, with Trump privately expressing frustration that “Lutnick has been hanging around him too much and that he has been manipulating the transition process for his own ends.”
Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.
My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.
Lutnick does have the public backing of Elon Musk as a changemaker. Musk said another frontrunner, Scott Bessent, would be “business-as-usual,” which is “driving America bankrupt.”
Scott Bessent
“I’ve been in the investment business 35 years, and Donald Trump is the most sophisticated leader on economics that I’ve met,” Bessent told Fox Business.
Bessent is the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Key Square Group, an ex-Soros executive and a key economic adviser to Trump during the 2024 campaign.
Trump has said he is “a nice-looking guy” who is “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.”
Bessent is seen as a safe bet for markets. Investment manager Dan Loeb appeared to back Bessent as the better choice in an X post, indicating Lutnick would shake markets.
But the jockeying for Treasury secretary between these two was described in the Times “as a knife fight, with Mr. Lutnick as the primary aggressor.” Now, two more choices have entered the fray.
Marc Rowan
“I think this administration has a remarkable chance to really pivot the country, to take advantage of all the inherent positives that we have,” Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan told Yahoo Finance.
Rowan is a new face in the race but does he want the job? According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump aides have reached out to the Wall Street billionaire to gauge his interest. The Times said Trump wants someone “big” for the role and has made clear he’s impressed with Rowan.
“Our financial situation is fixable,” Rowan said. “It is fixable in a way that is positive for the base that [the] President-elect has said that he wants to help. But it is not fixable by small amounts of tinkering. It is about wholesale change, and we as humans, we are sometimes scared of wholesale change.”
If the offer of Treasury secretary doesn’t entice Rowan to step into the public sector, there’s another candidate with whom Trump has more history.
Kevin Warsh
Trump once considered former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh as a potential Fed chair before choosing Jerome Powell, a choice Trump has long lamented.
“When times were tough, what did the Federal Reserve say? They went to Congress and said, ‘Please spend more.’ So they acted asymmetrically,” Warsh said of the Fed’s pandemic-recovery moves. “That’s the big mistake you can make. Well if you’re going to get into the fiscal business when you’re running these kinds of deficits at a time of relative peace and relative prosperity, you have to open your mouth the other way too. You cannot have fiscally responsible economic policy and irresponsible monetary policy. When one policy is irresponsible, so is the other, and that’s the fix we’re in, and we need to get out of it.”
Warsh will likely be interviewed for the Treasury post but has also been raised as someone who could potentially replace Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve when Powell’s seat is up in 2026.
According to reports, Trump is expected to invite potential Treasury picks to interview at Mar-a-Lago this week. But given Trump’s uncertainty over the role, there could be more names floated before the week is done.