Trump Treasury Pick Scott Bessent to Face Grilling

Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald J.Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, will face questions from lawmakers on Thursday about how he would manage a department at the center of the Trump administration’s tax, trade and sanctions policies, along with handling the nation’s debt load.Mr.

Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager with deep experience in financial markets, has been meeting with Senate Republicans and Democrats in recent weeks and is expected to have a relatively smooth confirmation process.A former top investor for the liberal philanthropist George Soros, Mr.

Bessent has given large sums to Democrats and Republicans over the years.“I firmly believe that, if confirmed, and with your counsel and support, we can usher in a new, more balanced era of prosperity that will lift up all Americans and rebuild communities and families across the country,” Mr.Bessent will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks that was reviewed by The New York Times.But several of the lawmakers he will appear before on Thursday during his confirmation hearing disagree with him on economic policy.

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are expected to press Mr.Bessent on Mr.

Trump’s plans to enact universal tariffs, potentially ease sanctions on Russia, establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and cut taxes for the rich.“Bessent has spent his life helping the rich get richer,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who met with him recently, said in an interview.Ms.

Warren, who sits on the Finance Committee, also described him as “smart and thoughtful.”Here’s what to watch at the hearing.Trump’s Tax CutsThe Treasury Department will be crucial to Mr.Trump’s plans to rewrite the tax code and extend the 2017 tax cuts that Republicans passed and Mr.

Trump signed into law.Mr.Bessent will warn in his remarks that failing to extend the tax cuts would represent “the largest tax increase in history.”Extending that law is expected t...