特朗普选择贝森特担任财政部长，沃特担任预算主管，查韦斯-德雷默担任劳工部长
【中美创新时报 2024 年 11 月 22 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）当选总统唐纳德·特朗普周五宣布，他将提名对冲基金经理、赤字削减倡导者斯科特·贝森特担任下一任财政部长。美联社对此作了下述报道。
特朗普还表示，他将提名拉塞尔·沃特领导管理和预算办公室，沃特在特朗普第一任总统任期内担任该职位。沃特密切参与了 2025 项目，这是特朗普第二任期的保守蓝图，他在竞选期间试图与之保持距离。
周五晚上的声明表明，特朗普正在充实新政府的财政方面。尽管贝森特与华尔街关系密切，可能会获得两党支持，但沃特以共和党强硬派著称。
特朗普表示，贝森特将“帮助我为美国开启新的黄金时代”，而沃特“确切知道如何瓦解深层政府并结束武器化政府”。
特朗普在另一份声明中表示，他已选择俄勒冈州共和党众议员洛里·查韦斯-德雷默担任劳工部长。
特朗普在一份声明中表示：“我期待与她合作，为美国工人创造巨大的机会。”
62 岁的贝森特是 Key Square Capital Management 对冲基金的创始人，自 1991 年以来曾断断续续地为索罗斯基金管理公司工作。如果得到参议院的批准，他将成为美国第一位公开同性恋身份的财政部长。
8 月份，他告诉彭博社，他决定加入特朗普的竞选活动，部分原因是为了应对美国不断增加的国家债务。这将包括削减政府项目和其他支出。
“这次选举周期是美国摆脱债务大山的最后机会，而不是成为某种欧洲式的社会主义民主国家，”他当时说。
截至 11 月 8 日，国家债务为 35.94 万亿美元，特朗普和拜登政府都增加了债务。财政监督机构负责任联邦预算委员会称，特朗普的政策使国家债务增加了 8.4 万亿美元，而拜登政府使国家债务增加了 4.3 万亿美元。
尽管贝森特力推通过停止支出来降低国家债务，但他支持延长 2017 年《减税与就业法案》的条款，特朗普在任职第一年就签署了该法案。根据各种经济分析估计，各种减税措施的成本在 10 年内将达到近 6 万亿至 10 万亿美元。该法案的几乎所有条款都将在 2025 年底到期。
在成为特朗普的捐助者和顾问之前，贝森特在 21 世纪初为各种民主党事业捐款，尤其是阿尔·戈尔的总统竞选。他还为民主党的主要支持者乔治·索罗斯工作。贝森特在索罗斯的伦敦业务中发挥了重要作用，包括他 1992 年著名的英镑空头押注，在英镑与欧洲货币脱钩的“黑色星期三”获得了巨额利润。
贝森特的入选并不令人意外；他曾是财政部长人选之一。在 10 月份底特律经济俱乐部的一次活动中，特朗普称贝森特是“华尔街顶级分析师之一”。
贝森特 8 月告诉彭博社，他认为关税是“一次性价格调整”，“不会导致通货膨胀”，特朗普第二届政府征收的关税将主要针对中国。本周，他在福克斯新闻的一篇专栏文章中写道，关税是“实现总统外交政策目标的有用工具。无论是让盟友增加国防支出、向美国出口产品开放国外市场、确保在结束非法移民和拦截芬太尼贩运方面的合作，还是阻止军事侵略，关税都可以发挥核心作用。”
本月早些时候，当被问及关税是否会为特朗普的大规模驱逐行动提供资金时，贝森特告诉福克斯新闻，他一直在制定一项他所谓的“金融驱逐”计划，并解释说他将限制向移民祖国汇款。
贝森特还提出了特朗普政府可以如何向美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔施加压力的想法，鲍威尔的任期将于 2026 年 5 月到期。上个月，贝森特建议特朗普可以提前任命一名继任者，并让该人充当“影子”主席，目的是基本上将鲍威尔边缘化。
但据报道，大选结束后，贝森特放弃了这一计划。鲍威尔则表示，如果特朗普要求他下台，他不会下台，并补充说，特朗普作为总统，没有权力解雇他。
特朗普在其第一任期内多次攻击鲍威尔在 2017 年和 2018 年提高美联储基准利率。在 2024 年的竞选中，他表示，作为总统，他应该对央行的利率决策有“发言权”。总统传统上避免对美联储的政策发表评论。
贝森特和他的丈夫、前纽约市检察官约翰·弗里曼于 2011 年结婚，育有两个孩子。
48 岁的沃特从 2020 年中期到 2021 年特朗普第一任期结束期间担任管理和预算办公室主任，此前曾担任代理主任和副主任。他毕业于惠顿学院和乔治华盛顿大学法学院，对政府财政有着深入的了解，并且与自己的基督教信仰相结合。
特朗普的首届任期结束后，沃特创立了美国复兴中心，这是一个智库，其使命是重塑“美国作为上帝之下的国家的共识”。
美国复兴中心发布了自己的 2023 年预算提案，题为“结束工作和武器化政府的承诺”。该提案设想在 10 年内削减 11.3 万亿美元的支出，并削减约 2 万亿美元的所得税，以便在 2032 年前实现预算盈余。
“国家面临的直接威胁是，人民不再治理国家；相反，政府本身越来越被当作武器来对付它本应服务的人民，”沃特在引言中写道。
沃特之前还曾担任共和党研究委员会的执行和预算主管，该委员会是保守派众议院共和党人的核心小组。他还曾在传统行动组织工作，该组织是与保守派智库传统基金会有联系的政治团体。
沃特提出的预算计划将削减农业部的粮食援助支出。卫生与公众服务部将削减 3.3 万亿美元的支出，这在很大程度上是通过医疗补助和医疗保险资金的分配方式实现的。该计划还削减了《平价医疗法案》约 6420 亿美元的支出。住房和城市发展部和教育部的预算也将被削减。
沃特的预算想法与特朗普无关，特朗普除了宣传减税和提高关税外，并未完全说明其经济计划的细节。
斯科特·贝森特于 2024 年 7 月 10 日星期三在华盛顿特区举行的全国保守党会议上发表讲话。DOMINIC GWINN/中东图片/法新社通过盖蒂图片社
附原英文报道：
Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor
By The Associated PressUpdated November 22, 2024
Scott Bessent speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., Wednesday, July 10, 2024.DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that he’ll nominate hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, an advocate for deficit reduction, to serve as his next treasury secretary.
Trump also said he would nominate Russel Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position Vought held during Trump’s first presidency. Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign.
The announcements Friday evening showed how Trump was fleshing out the financial side of his new administration. Although Bessent is closely aligned with Wall Street and could earn bipartisan support, Vought is known as a Republican hardliner.
Trump said Bessent would “help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States,” while Vought “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.”
In a separate announcement, Trump said he had chosen Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, as his labor secretary.
“I look forward to working with her to create tremendous opportunity for American Workers,” Trump said in a statement.
Bessent, 62, is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary.
He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending.
“This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then.
As of Nov. 8, the national debt stands at $35.94 trillion, with both the Trump and Biden administrations having added to it. Trump’s policies added $8.4 trillion to the national debt, while the Biden administration increased the national debt by $4.3 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.
Even as he pushes to lower the national debt by stopping spending, Bessent has backed extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law in his first year in office. Estimates from various economic analyses of the costs of the various tax cuts range between nearly $6 trillion and $10 trillion over 10 years. Nearly all of the law’s provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Before becoming a Trump donor and adviser, Bessent donated to various Democratic causes in the early 2000s, notably Al Gore’s presidential run. He also worked for George Soros, a major supporter of Democrats. Bessent had an influential role in Soros’ London operations, including his famous 1992 bet against the pound, which generated huge profits on “Black Wednesday,” when the pound was de-linked from European currencies.
Bessent’s selection wasn’t surprising; he had been among the names floated for the treasury secretary role. At an October Detroit Economic Club event, Trump called Bessent “one of the top analysts on Wall Street.”
Bessent told Bloomberg in August that he views tariffs as a “one time price adjustment” and “not inflationary,” and tariffs imposed during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China. And he wrote in a Fox News op-ed this week that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy objectives. Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.”
Bessent told Fox News earlier this month when asked if tariffs would pay for Trump’s large scale deportation operation that he had been working on a plan for what he called “financial deportations,” explaining he would restrict the flow of remittances to migrants’ home countries.
Bessent has also floated ideas for how the Trump administration could put pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May 2026. Last month, Bessent suggested Trump could name a replacement chair early, and let that person function as a “shadow” chair, with the goal of essentially sidelining Powell.
But after the election, Bessent reportedly backed away from that plan. Powell, for his part, has said he wouldn’t step down if Trump asked him to do so, and added that Trump, as president, doesn’t have the authority to fire him.
Trump repeatedly attacked Powell during his first term as president for raising the Fed’s key rate in 2017 and 2018. During the 2024 campaign, he said that as president he should have a “say” in the central bank’s interest rate decisions. Presidents traditionally avoid commenting on the Fed’s policies.
Bessent and his husband, former New York City prosecutor John Freeman, married in 2011 and have two children.
Vought, 48, was the head of the Office of Management and Budget from mid-2020 to the end of Trump’s first term in 2021, having previously served as the acting director and deputy director. A graduate of Wheaton College and George Washington University Law School, he had a deep knowledge of government finances that has been paired with his own Christian faith.
After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as renewing “a consensus of America as a nation under God.”
The Center for Renewing America released its own 2023 budget proposal entitled “A Commitment to End Work and Weaponized Government.” The proposal envisioned $11.3 trillion worth of spending reductions over 10 years and about $2 trillion in income tax cuts in order to bring the budget into surplus by 2032.
“The immediate threat facing the nation is the fact that the people no longer govern the country; instead, the government itself is increasingly weaponized against the people it is meant to serve,” Vought wrote in the introduction.
Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Vought’s proposed budget plan would cut spending on food aid through the Agriculture Department. There would be $3.3 trillion in spending reductions in the Health and Human Services Department in large part through how Medicaid and Medicare funds are distributed. It also contains about $642 billion in cuts to Affordable Care Act. The budgets for the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments would also be cut.
Vought’s budget ideas were independent of Trump, who has not entirely spelled out the details of his economic plans, other than to campaign on income tax cuts and tariff hikes.
