Here’s who Trump may tap to drive his economic agenda
Saleha Mohsin
Updated 9 min read
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s team is forming a new administration and the president-elect is expected to draw top advisers and cabinet secretaries from a pool of Wall Street and business executives including officials from his first term — at least the ones who stuck by him.
Republicans are on track to win total control of government, gaining not just the White House but also the Senate. And as of Thursday, they are leading to control the US House. That means Trump’s nominees for 4,000 government posts, including more than two dozen cabinet officials, could sail through the confirmation process in the Senate.
Trump’s transition work was formally launched in August, with Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, and Linda McMahon, co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, serving as co-chairs. Both have been spending time at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, where interviews for cabinet jobs are expected to take place.
On Thursday, Trump named campaign manager Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff. She will be the first woman to hold one of the most powerful jobs in Washington. She will likely have direct control over the president’s schedule, and is in a position to drive high-priority policy coordination within the administration and Congress.
Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles has been named White House chief of staff. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
She was widely credited with bringing order and discipline to the chaotic world that Trump often cultivates, and helped him navigate both the general election and the Republican primaries.
Trump has also suggested he might tap Elon Musk or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to drive some of his agenda.
Trump’s transition team is far more organized than in 2016 as the team aims to avoid repeating the early, chaotic days of the 2017 White House. Before the end of November, he could name the leaders of the Treasury and State departments. Trump himself had not weighed in on personnel matters before Election Day. What follows is a list based on who has advised and promoted him during the campaign, helped raise money, and who people familiar with the matter say have been floated over the past few months.
Treasury Secretary
This job comes with enormous responsibility over the global economy. Treasury chiefs serve as the key spokesperson for the world’s reserve currency, economic cheerleader, financial market regulator, signatory of the almighty buck. They wade through political thickets, spearhead international economic diplomacy, and bring Wall Street know-how to crisis situations that require them to get into the financial system’s plumbing. At the same time, they must exude predictability and stability — sometimes through their own personal gravitas — that keeps investors at peace.
Scott Bessent: He runs macro hedge fund Key Square Capital Management and caught the attention of Trump’s inner circle early this year. He’s helped craft key economic policy speeches, raised money for the campaign and gone on TV to promote Trump’s second-term agenda. Over the past few months, Bessent has accused Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of political interference in debt issuance, slammed the Federal Reserve over September’s half-point rate cut, and floated ideas to rev up US currency policy to fit a protectionist agenda.
Jay Clayton: As SEC chair, Clayton had a partisan mandate to help public companies by relaxing rules and enforcement. Still, as SEC chair — an independent regulator — he often moved cautiously on rules changes and frequently sided with Democrats. He has made television appearances to promote the impact of his time at the top Wall Street regulator, while questioning the effectiveness of current SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s aggressive stance against industry.
Senator Bill Hagerty: A Tennessee native, Hagerty is on the Senate Banking Committee that oversees regulatory matters and monetary policy, among other issues. He was an economic adviser to President George H.W. Bush and then went into private equity. He was elected to the Senate in 2020. Republicans have a majority in the Senate, but it’s questionable whether with that narrow a margin Trump would remove a Republican from the chamber.
Robert Lighthizer: He is among few Cabinet-level advisers from Trump’s first term who has not only remained loyal through Trump’s post-presidency controversies, but has also been a close adviser this year. He was the US Trade Representative in the first term, serving as an architect of the adversarial US posture with China. Investors are wary of Lighthizer for Treasury because of what it might mean for markets if the proud China hawk steers Trump toward hefty tariffs. He may also be considered to run the Commerce Department, or as a trade advisor in the White House.
Howard Lutnick: The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald has quickly become Trump’s transition co-chair and top cheerleader on Wall Street. From the Hamptons to the heartland, he’s cultivated donors — raising $15 million in one event alone. While Cabinet officials and other high-ranking political appointees are required to publicly disclose their assets and divest any that could cause a conflict of interest, Lutnick could serve as a special government employee. Those positions, which can be unpaid, allow an individual to work up to 130 days for a federal agency or the White House, and do not require divestment or public disclosure.
John Paulson: Trump has referred to Paulson as a “money machine” for famously making $15 billion betting against subprime mortgages. Both he and Trump were born in Queens, are familiar with messy divorces and legal fights, and are philosophically aligned. Paulson was a member of Trump’s economic advisory council during his first presidential bid, has personally donated and helped raise more than $50 million at a gathering in his Palm Beach home — all proof of the loyalty that Trump likes. Paulson would come with complications. He has a large, undisclosed stake in the preferred shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Taking the top Treasury job would require divestment since the secretary oversees the government-controlled mortgage giant, meaning a potential loss for Paulson.
Glenn Youngkin: The current governor of Virginia and a former executive of Carlyle Group Inc., Youngkin kept Trump at arm’s length in his 2021 campaign. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris carried Virginia in Tuesday's election in the purple state, but he has been more supportive of Trump in recent years. His term is up in 2025.
National Economic Council Director
A president’s economic team includes a director for the White House’s National Economic Council. This job requires someone with political acumen and the ability to promote the president’s agenda in Congress and with the public. Anyone under consideration for the Treasury post could end up as NEC director. Kevin Hassett, an economist who served as head of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers in the first term, and Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve official, are contenders for that job.
Secretary of State
The secretary of state is the top US diplomat, with the job of selling US policy to the rest of the world and persuading foreign allies and adversaries to stick to US national security objectives. But the secretary also oversees State’s own intelligence service, negotiates global treaties and civilian airline routes to foreign countries, and helps evacuate Americans from war zones.
Ric Grenell: Grenell previously served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany and then acting national intelligence chief. He is seen as fiercely loyal to Trump, and led efforts to protest the 2020 vote that Trump falsely claimed was stolen from him in Nevada.
Hagerty: While he’s also among those touted for Treasury chief, his experience as US Ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term and time on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since then mean he could step into the State Department.
Steven Mnuchin: The former Treasury chief is one of the few officials from Trump’s first term that lasted all four years, and remained loyal even after Jan. 6. He landed a job in the first administration after serving as the 2016 campaign’s national finance chairman, raising millions of dollars, but has remained largely out of re-election efforts in 2024. During his time at Treasury the US continued its ramped-up use of economic sanctions on adversaries including Iran, Russia and Venezuela, drawing the agency deeper into the national security sphere. That sets him up as a potential secretary of State, although conflicts abound for him, too. Since leaving government, he started Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm that has attracted billions of dollars from the Middle East.
Robert O’Brien: O’Brien was Trump’s national security adviser for a year and a half at the end of his first term. He focused on confronting China over actions that threatened Hong Kong, its aggressive action in the South China Sea, and criticized the nation’s response to the outbreak of Covid-19. He also served when the US carried out the drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and chief of the Quds Force intelligence group. O’Brien is seen as more of a traditional foreign policy conservative than a disruptor.
Marco Rubio: Trump called him “Little Marco” during the 2016 primary, but the senator from Florida played a key role in advising Trump on foreign policy in his first term, particularly regarding Latin America and Venezuela. Rubio is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Gang of 8, senior legislators who are briefed on classified intelligence matters from the executive branch. He’s strongly defended Trump’s immigration policies and his goal of ending the Ukraine war, as well as being a top supporter of Israel’s war against Iran-backed proxies. Trump considered him as a possible running mate this year.
Commerce Secretary
The Commerce Department was a relative policy backwater in the first Trump administration, with Secretary Wilbur Ross perhaps best known for falling asleep in meetings. But President Joe Biden’s secretary, Gina Raimondo, injected a new energy and importance. That has grown with the $280 billion Chips and Science Act passed in 2022, with the department awarding companies with tens of billions of dollars to return semiconductor production to the US from Asia. Commerce plays a key role in trade promotion, as well as with export controls used to keep cutting-edge technology out of the hands of China, Russia and other geopolitical rivals. Two people so far are under consideration: Lighthizer and McMahon.
US Trade Representative
The US Trade Representative will also be key for Trump’s populist agenda. Two former USTR officials from the Trump era are under consideration: Jamieson Greer, who served as chief of staff to Lighthizer when he had that role, and Stephen Vaughn, who served as USTR general counsel.
—With assistance from Nancy Cook, Ari Natter, Jennifer A Dlouhy, Katanga Johnson, Stephanie Lai, Lydia Beyoud, Eric Martin, Sara Forden, Katherine Burton, Bill Allison, Amanda Gordon and Josh Sisco.
