Trump Eyes High-Profile Wall Street, D.C. Veterans for Treasury Secretary
The former president and his aides view experience in finance as a key factor in the selection
Donald Trump and his allies are discussing several high-profile Wall Street and Washington veterans as candidates for Treasury secretary if the former president clinches a second term, ahead of a major fundraiser that will feature two likely contenders for the job.
The April 6 event in Palm Beach, Fla., is being hosted by billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson and co-chaired by investor Scott Bessent, both of whom have caught Trump’s eye as he weighs who he will nominate for key cabinet positions, according to people familiar with the matter.
With Election Day more than seven months away, Trump is far from cementing his cabinet picks and remains focused foremost on selecting a running mate. Associates noted that the former president is prone to changing his mind and sometimes flatters friends by mentioning them as candidates for jobs. But the early conversations signal that Trump views Wall Street experience as a key factor in making the selection, the people said.
Other people Trump’s allies have discussed for Treasury secretary include: Robert Lighthizer, the former president’s top trade adviser; former Trump administration Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton; and JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.
If Trump reclaims the Oval Office, his choices for Treasury secretary and the chair of the Federal Reserve will be closely watched by Wall Street as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with inflation. Even though Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair doesn’t end until 2026, economic advisers to the president have already started discussing possible candidates to lead the central bank, the Journal has reported.
The Treasury Department is the premier economic policymaking agency in the federal government. It implements tax policy, manages the nation’s debt, leads financial regulators, controls sanctions and conducts economic diplomacy all over the world.
The invitation for the April 6 fundraiser lists three-dozen co-chairs, including oil-and-gas company executive Harold Hamm, hedge-fund executive Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer; New York real-estate developer Steven Witkoff; and former casino magnate Steve Wynn.
The hosts of the event are giving between $250,000 and $814,600 a person, according to the invitation, a show of strength as Trump lags behind President Biden in fundraising and is increasingly courting major donors. The event will raise more than $33 million, according to Paulson, eclipsing the $26 million that Biden raised during an event in New York on Thursday alongside former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
The guest list indicates that some wealthy Republican donors are coming around to the former president after several distanced themselves from him in recent years. The Mercers, longtime Republican mega donors, held back donations in recent years despite supporting Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Their decision to co-chair the fundraiser signals their intention to once again put their largess behind him after he vanquished final GOP primary foe Nikki Haley, who had attracted some big-donor support.
“There are a lot of Wall Street people who tried everything else and are in the process of coming back to the party and Trump,” a Republican donor said.
The Trump campaign is also courting Blackstone CEO and former Trump donor Steve Schwarzman, who in 2022 broke with the former president, saying he planned to back “a new generation” of Republican leaders. Schwarzman hasn’t made a final decision but is considering supporting Trump’s re-election effort, according to people close to him. Some Trump advisers have also mentioned Schwarzman as a potential Treasury secretary.
Trump’s campaign declined to comment for this article.
Paulson, 68 years old, made his fortune betting against subprime mortgages and banks as the U.S. housing market unraveled. His hedge-fund firm, Paulson & Co., generated profits of some $20 billion from the trades. He was one of Trump’s earliest Wall Street backers during the 2016 campaign.
Trump has publicly mused about tapping Paulson to lead the Treasury Department, touting his huge wealth as a qualification for the position. He “makes a hell of a lot of money. He makes money everywhere he goes, actually,” Trump said during a speech in New Hampshire earlier this year. “So, money machine. Maybe we’ll…put him at Treasury. You want to make a little money?”
Paulson, in an email to The Wall Street Journal, praised Trump’s proposals on the economy, energy, immigration and foreign policy. He said he is “happy to help President Trump in any way I can at this stage.” But he added, “It’s too early to discuss any positions in President Trump’s administration. I’ve never worked for the government in the past and have never had an aspiration to. I very much enjoy my life in the private sector.”
Bessent is the founder of investment firm Key Square Group. He previously was the chief investment officer at George Soros’s Soros Fund Management. He supported Trump in 2016, but largely stayed on the sidelines in 2020. Bessent has reengaged this cycle in part because he thinks Trump’s campaign is better run than it was four years ago, and he is concerned about Biden winning another term, according to people close to him.
Bessent has praised Trump in television interviews, which has caught the attention of the former president, according to his advisers. Trump has talked to Bessent about possibly serving in his administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Bessent declined to comment on his discussions with Trump.
Lighthizer has emerged as one of Trump’s closest post-White House advisers, though some in the former president’s orbit said he lacks the breadth of experience on the economy necessary to run the Treasury Department.
Clayton currently chairs the board of private-equity giant Apollo Global Management and is a senior policy adviser at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He has remained close with Trump—the two golf together on occasion—and people around him say he would welcome a high-ranking position in a second Trump administration.
Dimon—who said in 2019 that “my heart is Democratic, my brain is kind of Republican”— praised Trump during a cable news interview earlier this year, arguing that his approach to the economy, immigration and China were “kind of right.” The interview caught the attention of Trump’s advisers, the people said. “It’s almost like he seems to be auditioning for Treasury secretary,” one Trump adviser said.
A person close to Dimon rejected the idea his comments were an audition, saying he was merely making the point that Trump’s supporters and their ideas shouldn’t be dismissed. It is unlikely Dimon would accept the Treasury secretary position under Trump, the person said. Indeed, Dimon wasn’t interested in the job when Trump considered him for it in 2016.
Billionaire financier Jeff Yass has also been mentioned by some people close to Trump as a potential candidate to lead the Treasury Department. But Yass has no plans to donate to the former president’s re-election effort, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
Yass, a major investor in TikTok who has opposed efforts to ban the app, has developed a relationship with the former president. The two men spoke briefly on the sidelines of a recent event, where they discussed school choice, a top issue for the financier.