When Donald Trump assembled a cabinet of advisers for his first term in office, many of them were connected by one main attribute: being filthy rich. Indeed, as he told campaign supporters weeks before his inauguration, “I want people that made a fortune.” Later, when he explained his rationale for hiring cartoon robber baron Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary, he told a crowd of farmers he wanted the “thinking” of a rich person for a job involving the economy, adding: “I love all people. Rich or poor. But in those particular positions I just don’t want a poor person.”
And eight years later, it appears the main thing he’s looking for when it comes to presidential counselors is just the same.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump and his advisers are discussing candidates to serve as Treasury secretary in a potential second term, and two individuals in particular have “caught” the ex-president’s eye. One of them is hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, whom Trump discussed during an event earlier this year. Paulson “makes a hell of a lot of money,” Trump said at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire. “He makes money everywhere he goes, actually. So, money machine. Maybe we’ll…put him at Treasury. You want to make a little money?” (Paulson famously made $20 billion betting against the housing market the last time the economy collapsed.)
The other person is fellow hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who the Journal reports has “praised Trump in television interviews, which has caught the attention of the former president.” Paulson is hosting an upcoming Trump fundraiser that Bessent is cochairing, according to the newspaper. In an email to the Journal, Paulson wrote that he is “happy to help President Trump in any way I can at this stage,” but 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 declined the Journal’s request for comment.
Other people who are said to be under consideration for the gig include JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, former Trump trade adviser Robert Lighthizer, and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton. Billionaires Stephen Schwarzman and Jeff Yass have reportedly also come up. (While Dimon recently said some positive things about Trump, it seems unlikely that he’d accept an offer, given he declined the first time around.)
Trump’s last Treasury secretary was Steven Mnuchin, who did not like being referred to as the “Foreclosure King” of California, despite the fact that his mortgage lending firm, OneWest, foreclosed on an estimated 36,000 homes in the state. While serving in Trump’s cabinet, Mnuchin became known for, among other things, defending his boss after Charlottesville, refusing to hand Trump’s tax returns over to Congress, and an incredible series of photos of him and his wife holding money.
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