Donald Trump taps Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump will name hedge fund mogul Scott Bessent as the next Treasury secretary, four sources tell The Post, ending a rough-and-tumble race that saw fierce jockeying among power players across Wall Street.Bessent “got the thumbs up” late Thursday during a meeting with Trump, 78, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., one source close to the situation told The Post.A flurry of last-minute media reports had floated several candidates for the job.

Late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that financier Kevin Warsh had met with Trump on Wednesday about the Treasury post — and possibly replacing Jerome Powell as Fed chairman when his term expires in 2026.Trump also met about the Treasury role with Marc Rowan, the billionaire boss of buyout firm Apollo Global Management, at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.Bessent, the 62-year-old founder of Key Square Group, has repeatedly backed the president-elect’s pro-tariff stance in a series of op-eds and media appearances over the past year.A source close to the Trump transition team told the Post earlier on Friday that the hedge fund executive was “being vetted” for the role ahead of a formal announcement.“If you want to bring a genius into that job who is loyal to the president, Scott is the right guy,” one source close to the situation said.One faction of Trump World had been pushing for Bessent for weeks, trying to outmaneuver Howard Lutnick — the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team — in what had reportedly escalated into a bitter “knife fight” for the coveted role.One insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lutnick, a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, was eventually handed the post of Commerce Secretary “to calm things down.” After Lutnick exited the Treasury race, sources said Trump continued to do interviews to hash out his options.Bessent and Rowan were both spotted at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.

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