Treasury candidates race to win over undecided Trump

With uncertainty surrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s list of Treasury Secretary nominees, rival factions are once again trying to win his favor.

After several meetings this week, including discussions with new contenders, Trump has yet to decide who will lead the charge on the macroeconomic agenda he promised voters.

Apollo Global Management Inc. executive Mark Rowan pitched a tax policy approach that fell flat with some of the president-elect’s advisers, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. . A major tax cut bill is a top priority for the incoming administration, with most of Trump’s first-term cuts set to expire next year.

People involved in the process see another contender, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Wersh, who wants the job leading the U.S. central bank when the role of Fed chair opens up in 2026. Trump passed Warsh over when he nominated Jerome Powell for leadership during his first term. Fed, a choice he has since regretted.

Warsh has been involved in the ongoing transition efforts at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach since Election Day, helping develop large-scale economic policy plans. But until Trump advisers invited him to interview for Treasury secretary earlier this week, according to people familiar, he was seen as leaving the administration to leave room to join the Fed. .

Candidates for Treasury secretary — including Key Square Group LP founder Scott Besant and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty — have drifted in and out of Trump’s favor over the past two weeks. Another contender, transition co-chairman Howard Lutnick, was dropped from the race earlier this week after Trump nominated him to serve as commerce secretary.

“President-elect Trump is deciding who will serve in his second administration. “They will continue to announce those decisions as they are made,” transition spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt said in a statement.

A spokesman for Haggerty did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Besant, Rowan and Warsh did not respond to requests for comment.

Since Election Day, Bessant has met with Trump several times and at least twice to discuss the jobs of Treasury secretary and director of the White House National Economic Council, another powerful position on the president’s economic team. . Both jobs work together to advance economic policy priorities through the executive branch and Congress, although it is the Senate-confirmed Treasury chief who is traditionally the administration’s liaison to the markets and the Fed.

Although a decision could have come this week at Treasury after a series of meetings, the sudden withdrawal of Matt Gaetz as Trump’s choice for attorney general on Thursday, and his quick replacement with Pam Bondi, left most of the audience at Mar-a-Lago stunned. Ended the discussion. In recent times.

The former Florida congressman resigned following intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Besant, who has been nominated for the Treasury role since March, has a deep bench of supporters who come from both Wall Street and Trump’s inner circle. These include: former NEC director Larry Kudlow, longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management. Bloomberg reported last week that JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon thinks highly of Besant for Treasury secretary but does not consider her the only good candidate.

Hedge fund founders Besant and Warsh, who previously worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, are seen by market observers as choices that would come with deep knowledge of public markets. The U.S. Treasury Secretary oversees the $28 trillion market for government debt, and often steps in to calm the market in the event of excessive volatility or liquidity crises.

Read: Markets see Wersh as experienced candidate to lead US Treasury Department

Rowan, meanwhile, will be a rare pick from the world of private equity.

“He would be an unconventional choice to run Treasury,” said Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates trading and strategy for Amerivate Securities. People who have experience in hedge funds, trading and investment banking have greater daily involvement in global capital flows, payments, treasury issuances and other areas of finance, he said.

“The expectations for the Treasury seat are different when you think about the pipeline of the financial system,” he said.

Those working on Trump’s transition efforts have objected to how complex a task it would be for Rowan to divest his investment in Apollo in order to take the Treasury post. He is Apollo’s fourth-largest shareholder with a roughly 6% stake, worth about $6 billion, according to public filings. This does not include his stake in Apollo funds.

Bannon attacked Rowan and his private equity background on his War Room podcast on Friday.

“Apollo is one of Wall Street’s elite predators. That’s predatory capitalism,” Bannon said. “I don’t know if it makes any sense for President Trump’s program if you have a guy like Rowan representing Apollo.”

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