Bessent to be Treasury nominee, Trump taps Turner for HUD

President-elect Donald Trump announced two cabinet nominations Friday evening that will shape his administration’s financial policies. 

Trump tapped Scott Bessent, a billionaire donor and founder of the hedge fund Key Square Group, to lead the Treasury Department. 

Bessent had been rumored as a top candidate for the post since Trump’s electoral victory earlier this month. He further cemented his place as the clear odds-on favorite, according to the political betting site Polymarket, after Howard Lutnik, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, got the nod for Secretary of Commerce.

Trump also announced that he would nominate Scott Turner, a former congressman from Texas and a one-time National Football League player, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Banking groups were quick to celebrate both picks on Friday evening. 

“As an experienced and accomplished businessman, we applaud Mr. Bessent’s recent comments in which he has called for a surge in small business optimism, a smart deregulatory banking agenda, and support for Main Street,” said Lindsey Johnson, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, in a written statement. “If confirmed, we look forward to working with Mr. Bessent to advocate for sound financial regulatory policy that enable banks to better support consumers, small businesses, and the economy at large.”

American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols also issued a congratulatory statement, lauding Bessent’s “real world experience in financial markets” as an asset. 

“We look forward to hearing more about his views during the confirmation process, and, if confirmed, we look forward to working with him to grow the economy, expand opportunity for all Americans, and put in place a commonsense regulatory framework that allows banks to best serve their customers, clients and communities,” Nichols said. 

Turner also earned praise from industry groups and their allies in Washington. 

Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said Turner has a strong track record in the space. 

“Pursuing policies and initiatives that help solve our nation’s housing affordability crisis for owners and renters should be a top policy priority under the Trump administration,” Broeksmit said. “Scott’s leadership as Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in the first Trump administration, where, alongside Secretary Ben Carson, he was instrumental in implementing Opportunity Zones, will serve him well.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the presumptive chair of the Senate Banking Committee for the next Congress, said he would move swiftly to advance Turner’s nomination. 

“For too many Americans across the country, access to quality, affordable housing is out of reach. Federal housing policy has failed hardworking Americans for decades, and they deserve a different approach,” Scott said. “I look forward to working with Scott Turner to put more Americans on the path towards homeownership and financial opportunity. The Senate Banking Committee will work quickly to consider his nomination.”

The picks were not universally celebrated. The non-profit watchdog group Accountable.US expressed concern that Trump’s choice of Bessent for Treasury Secretary would further an agenda that puts the interests of businesses and wealthy individuals over working people. The group added that Bessent would oversee Trump’s proposed tariffs on a wide range of imported goods. 

“For all his talk of looking out for working class Americans, President-elect Trump’s choice of a billionaire hedge fund manager to lead the Treasury Department shows he just wants to keep a rigged system that only works for big corporations and the very wealthy,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “If confirmed, Scott Bessent’s first order of business will be to push trillions of dollars in more tax giveaways to the very well-off and at the same time essentially enact a $3,900 tax increase for the typical American family. This is the same, old playbook, and it will have the same results of an economy that only works for a select few, not everyone.”