WEST PALM BEACH: US President-elect Donald Trump has not expressed his complete satisfaction so far with any candidate for a Treasury secretary after the search stalled over the weekend with him looking at other candidates, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.
Among the names now being considered are Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan, two sources said, and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, according to a separate source briefed on the matter, confirming earlier reporting by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
A number of names have cycled through as possibles for the job in the new Trump administration, but no announcement has been made. However, the team making the pick has now widened the search, the two sources said on Monday.
Billionaire investor John Paulson was originally one lead contender but exited the race last week, citing “complex financial obligations”. That left another lead contender, investor Scott Bessent, although banker Howard Lutnick also emerged as a top contender, Reuters reported last week. A number of other people have also been speculated for the position.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Bessent was being considered for the White House’s National Economic Council, but holding off accepting until a decision is made on the Treasury secretary.
Warsh, 54, is a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University with a long track record of hawkish views on both inflation and deficits.
A former mergers and acquisitions banker at Morgan Stanley, Warsh was a White House economic policy adviser from 2002 to 2006, and was then nominated by then-President George W. Bush to be a governor on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board.
Warsh left the Fed in 2011, a few months after joining his colleagues in unanimous support of expanding the Fed’s bond-buying program, and then making public his reservations about expanding the central bank’s balance sheet.
Rowan is CEO of Apollo, one of the world’s biggest investors in alternative assets such as corporate credit and private equity, succeeding Leon Black in 2021.
Rowan and Warsh did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Bessent declined to comment. A spokesperson for Lutnick declined to comment.
It was unclear if any candidates had been ruled out or if other names could be added to the mix.
Scramble for top role
The Treasury secretary role is one of the highest-profile cabinet posts, overseeing the country’s financial and economic policy. As such, it is one of the key roles being watched by global investors and Wall Street.
Top candidates have amassed public supporters as the process has heated up.
Bessent’s supporters include Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, according to an article last week in Semafor, and investor Kyle Bass, who wrote on X last week that Bessent would be the best choice for markets and citizens.
“I support Bessent 100%,” Bass told Reuters by text. “As Treasury Secretary, you must fully understand the bond market, global payment flows, geopolitics, people, financial market flows, inflation, and the federal budget. Scott is far and above the best candidate for the position.”
Bass added that Bessent had not been part of weekend “drama” about who would get the position. “He’s been silent and working on solutions for President Trump,” wrote Bass.
A spokesperson for Graham said on Monday that he maintains his position.
Other supporters include Larry Kudlow, who recently said he was a “big fan” of Bessent and that he was his “first choice” to lead Treasury, according to a Wall Street Journal story on Nov. 11; and investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who has said that Bessent, his former colleague at Soros Fund Management, was “the only guy I know who’s not only a market participant but very fluent and comfortable in academic circles,” according to an Axios story on Nov. 13.
Kudlow did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Druckenmiller did not respond to a request for comment.
Conservative economist and Trump adviser Steve Moore said last week he strongly favored Bessent, as he was a ballast in the right-of-center Washington movement pushing deregulation and tax cuts to promote growth.
“I think most of the free-market conservatives are getting behind Scott Bessent,” Moore told Reuters last week.
On the other side, two top Trump advisers, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is Trump’s pick to head the Health and Human Services Department, sided with Lutnick for the position, sending supportive posts on social media.
Musk did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment beyond his post on X. A spokesperson for Kennedy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of Sunday, Trump was also considering Lutnick for another economic job, possibly that of commerce secretary, the source briefed on the matter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. That source also said that Trump’s former US trade representative Robert Lighthizer was being considered for Commerce. Lighthizer did not respond to a request for comment on Commerce.