Bessent and Lutnick navigator Trump Treasury job race after Paulson exits

Wall Street investors Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick are the leading contenders to be Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary after insure pool billionaire John Paulson dropped out of the race for the job.

Paulson said on Tuesday that his “complicated monetary obligations would prevent” him from entering the administration “at this period” but he would continue advising Trump’s economic throng.

“I’m ecstatic that President Trump will be back in office,” he wrote. “He is off to a quick commence with his appointments, and his policies will have an immensely positive impact on all Americans.”

information of the removal leaves Bessent, a former chief capital officer at George Soros’s household office, and Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive Lutnick, who is also co-chair of the Trump shift throng, in pole position to compete for the job.

Both have been spotted around Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and resort, since the former president won a convincing election win last week.

Trump has moved quickly to fill the pivotal posts in his administration, including appointing a national safety adviser and nominating a secretary of interior, but several top jobs remain, including that of Treasury secretary, the recent government’s most significant economy position.

Paulson emerged as a Trump Treasury candidate earlier this year but told the monetary Times in September that it was “not so straightforward” for him to unwind his significant holdings.

He had been a large money-raker for Trump, including earlier this year hosting a fundraiser at his Palm Beach home, which the Trump campaign said raised more than $50mn.

Bessent, chief of Key Square capital Management, appeared on rightwing ideologue Steve Bannon’s podcast “War Room” on Tuesday and floated cutting government spending by $1tn over the next decade. Trump confidant Elon Musk has called for even deeper cuts to the federal monetary schedule.

“I ponder if we could get $100bn a year over 10 years that scores at $1tn in this cockamamie CBO scoring that’ll stabilise the predictable returns trade and we can leave from there,” said Bessent, referring to the Congressional monetary schedule Office. “It’s an incredible chance.”

Bessent said “the really insidious part” of the Biden agenda was not necessarily taxes but the “regulatory burden”. He called for “a large push in financial institution deregulation”, saying “throng banks require to be allowed to lend to their communities”.

He also remarked upon the state of the overall economy, saying that wealthy people and large companies have done well, while the bottom half of wage earners have gotten “crushed”.

“I’m a Wall Street guy who loves Main Street,” said Bessent. “Main Street has to drive this Trump boom.”

One former Republican congressional aide said Bessent’s candidacy could face resistance from some of those close to Trump because of his history work for Soros. The aide also claimed that Bessent was more devoted to pro-business deregulation than to the president-elect’s plans for sweeping tariffs.

“My general view is that at the complete of the day, he’s a free trader,” Bessent told the FT last month, referring to Trump. “It’s escalate to de-escalate.”

Additional reporting from James Politi in Washington