President-elect Donald Trump has filled out his economic, health care and national security teams with a flurry of appointments and pending nominations, including hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary and former White House budget director Russell Vought to serve in the same role.
Mr. Trump also named his surgeon general, labor secretary and other top aides in one hour Friday night. On Saturday, he announced Brooke Rollins, his former White House domestic policy adviser, as agriculture secretary.
The president-elect rounded out the core roles of his Cabinet by announcing the nominations of Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon as labor secretary, Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general, and former Trump administration official Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Mr. Bessent, 62, founded the investment firm Key Square Group, which managed more than $4.5 billion in capital. He was the chief investment officer for George Soros, who funds liberal causes. Mr. Bessent started Key Square with a $2 billion investment from Mr. Soros.
“On the eve of our great country’s 250th anniversary, he will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States as we fortify our position as the world’s leading economy, center of innovation and entrepreneurialism, destination for capital, while always maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the reserve currency for the world, ” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Bessent.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, said the choice of Mr. Bessent suggests an administration intent on serving “the ultra-wealthy.”
SEE ALSO: Trump taps Brooke Rollins, former White House adviser, to lead Agriculture Department
“Donald Trump pretends to be an economic populist, but it wouldn’t be a Trump Treasury Department without a rich political donor running the show,” Mr. Wyden said in a statement.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, called Mr. Bessent “academically gifted and real-world tested.”
“I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people. Well done, Mr. President and congratulations Scott,” Mr. Graham said.
Mr. Bessent, who is openly gay and married to former New York City prosecutor John Freeman, is poised to become the highest-ranking LGBTQ government official in history.
The Log Cabin Republicans, a group of conservative members of the LBGTQ community, called Mr. Bessent a “terrific choice.”
Mr. Bessent will help Mr. Trump enact the tax cuts promised on the campaign trail and impose tariffs on foreign countries as high as 20%.
SEE ALSO: Hagerty: Americans focused on results, not Trump Cabinet background checks
Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was backed by the Teamsters Union, which did not endorse a presidential candidate in the 2024 election after an internal survey revealed that a high percentage of its members preferred Mr. Trump. She lost her reelection bid this month.
She is the third current House Republican Mr. Trump has picked for his administration, after Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida. Mr. Trump had chosen former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to be attorney general, but he resigned from Congress and then withdrew his nomination amid a sexual misconduct scandal.
Mr. Trump said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer would “support the hardworking men and women of America.”
The National Right to Work Committee, which advocates against union organizing, blasted Ms. Chavez-DeRemer as a tool of Big Labor. She has supported the PRO Act, which organized labor has lobbied Congress to pass for years. The act would make it easier for workers to organize as unions.
Mr. Vought would oversee the White House budget and determine whether federal agencies comply with the president’s policies.
During his earlier role as Mr. Trump’s budget chief, he suggested using emergency powers to sidestep congressional decisions about how much to spend on a border wall.
Mr. Vought was a leading figure in developing Project 2025, a blueprint for conservative government by The Heritage Foundation. Democrats sought to tie Mr. Trump to Project 2025 during the campaign, but he repeatedly distanced himself from it.
Mr. Trump called Mr. Vought an “aggressive cost-cutter and deregulator.”
Ms. Rollins played a prominent role in Mr. Trump’s first White House term. She served on his Economic Advisory Council, as the director of his Domestic Policy Council, as director of the Office of American Innovation, and as assistant to the president for strategic initiatives.
She became CEO and co-founder of the America First Policy Institute and America First Works. For the past four years, the two nonprofits have been geared toward pushing Mr. Trump’s public policy agenda.
The America First Policy Institute has played a prominent role in Mr. Trump’s transition. Linda McMahon, another Cabinet pick, served as board chair for the nonprofit research institute.
Ms. Rollins, 52, grew up in the agriculture-centered town of Glen Rose, Texas, and attended Texas A&M University, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in agriculture development. Mr. Trump said her background gives her a “practitioner’s experience,” coupled with her policy credentials at the state and national levels, to run the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Turner, a former NFL player, was picked to lead HUD. He served as the first executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Mr. Trump’s first term in the Oval Office.
In addition to Dr. Nesheiwat, Mr. Trump nominated Dr. Marty Makary, a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Nesheiwat is a double-board-certified medical doctor and advocate for preventive medicine and public health. She is also the latest contributor Mr. Trump has plucked from Fox News.
Dr. Makary, a surgeon and writer, was one of the leading medical voices opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and advocating the protection from natural immunity. Mr. Trump tapped longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Weldon, a medical doctor and Army veteran, was a seven-term lawmaker. While in Congress, he served on several committees, including Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Education and the Workforce, and Science, Space and Technology. After leaving Congress in 2009, he returned to practicing medicine.
On the national security front, Mr. Trump announced he was bringing Sebastian Gorka back to the White House to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism.
The president-elect said Alex Wong would serve as an assistant and the principal deputy national security adviser. Mr. Gorka and Mr. Wong will assume their jobs immediately. They do not require Senate confirmation.
Mr. Gorka, a British-Hungarian-American media host, has been a fixture in Mr. Trump’s work and the MAGA media circuit for years.
The transition team stressed that Mr. Gorka was a legal immigrant with more than 30 years of national security experience.
Mr. Wong is also an alumnus of the first Trump term. During this time, he served as deputy special representative for North Korea and deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs at the State Department.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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