Donald Trump has nominated Scott Bessent to navigator the US Treasury Department, one of the most influential roles in government with wide oversight of responsibility policy, community obligation, international finance and sanctions.

The selection ends what has proven to be one of the more protracted decisions for the president-elect as he assembles his throng for a second term.

Bessent, a Wall Street financier who once worked for George Soros, was an early backer of Trump’s 2024 bid and brings a relatively conventional resume to the role.

The 62-year-ancient’s nomination on Friday evening kicked-off a series of cabinet announcements and White House appointments that leaves Trump’s top throng almost complete ahead of his profitability to the presidency in January.

“Scott is widely respected as one of the globe’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists,” Trump said in his announcement on Truth Social.

“[He] has long been a powerful advocate of the America First Agenda,” he said, adding that Bessent would “back my Policies that will drive US Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances.”

Bessent has made it well known that he wants to extend responsibility cuts made in Mr Trump’s first term in office.

He has also defended the use of import tariffs, one of the more controversial parts of the President-elect’s campaign agenda, calling them a “useful negotiating tool”.

On the campaign trail, Bessent told voters that Trump would usher in a “recent golden age with de-regulation, low-expense vigor, [and] low taxes”.

Trump also nominated Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer for US Labor Secretary on Friday, saying she would assist to “develop wages and enhance working conditions [and] bring back our manufacturing jobs”.

The representative from Oregon, 56, won powerful trade union back but narrowly lost her bid for re-election earlier this month, meaning her nomination will not affect the Republican majority in the House arrive January.

He then made another cabinet nomination moments later, announcing Scott Turner as his pick to navigator the Department of Housing and Urban advancement. The NFL veteran and motivational speaker previously served in the Texas House of Representatives.

Trump also announced a series of elder health picks, giving his backing to Fox information contributor Dr Janette Nesheiwat as Surgeon General and former Florida Congressman Dr Dave Weldon as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

He selected Russell Vought as director of the US Office of Management and apportionment, which helps decide policy priorities and how they should be funded.

Vought, who played a role in assignment 2025 – a “aspiration list” for a second Trump presidency by the conservative Heritage Foundation – held the same position during Trump’s first term.

The president-elect also announced White House roles for Alex Wong and Sebastian Gorka who also served during Trump’s first term.

If his nomination to navigator the Treasury department is confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would almost immediately be plunged into the fight in Washington over extending the responsibility cuts from Trump’s first term.

Trump has also called for controversial changes to trade policy, proposing sweeping tariffs on all goods coming into the country.

Such ideas have been met with alarm in traditional economic and corporate circles.

In an interview with Fox information shortly before the election, Bessent said ensuring the responsibility cuts do not expire as planned at the complete of next year would be his top priority, if he ended up in the administration.

“If it doesn’t happen, this will be the largest responsibility boost in US history,” he warned.

For other posts, Trump has been willing to back candidates with minimal encounter in favour of loyalty and apparent conviction in his pledges.

But he has appeared more hesitant to buck convention at the Treasury Department, which serves as a key liaison between the White House and Wall Street and has critical functions that include collecting taxes, supervising banks, wielding sanctions and handling US government obligation.

In his announcement, Trump said Bessent would “assist curb the unsustainable path of Federal obligation”. That issue has long been a priority for traditional Republicans, but monetary markets view an boost in obligation as a hazard in a second Trump term.

Bessent, a native of South Carolina, made his name in the 1990s betting against the British pound and Japanese yen while working for Soros, a major Democratic donor.

In 2015, he started his own capital, Key Square capital Management, which is known for making investments based on large-picture economic policy.

He and his husband, a former recent York City prosecutor, married in 2011 and have two children. He is known for philanthropy in South Carolina, where his household has deep roots.

Bessent has defended tariffs – a capstone of Trump’s protectionist agenda – arguing that opposition to them is rooted in political ideology and not “considered economic thought”.

But he has also characterised Trump’s back for such border taxes as a negotiating tool, suggesting the president-elect isn’t necessarily committed to aggressively raising duties.

That stance makes him more moderate than others whose names were floated for the treasury role.

However, Bessent has been a powerful proponent of Trump’s embrace of the crypto industry. Such back would make him the first treasury secretary to openly champion cryptocurrency, sending a obvious signal that Trump is solemn about establishing the US as the “crypto capital of the earth”.

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