After the appointments on the diplomatic and domestic fronts, Donald Trump is preparing to appoint his Treasury Secretary and the teams who will lead his trade policy. But the affair has already degenerated into a battle for influence between the different clans surrounding the elected American president. One of the challenges will be to measure the influence of Elon Musk, 53, appointed to head a commission responsible for slashing federal spending, and that of Robert Lighthizer, 77, former trade representative during the first term of Donald Trump (2017-2021) and staunch supporter of tariffs.
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Until last week, financier Scott Bessent, founder of Key Square Group, held the rope. Alas, this 62-year-old Republican had two handicaps: he was a veteran of George Soros, the financier of Hungarian origin who caused the British pound to fall in 1992 and is reviled by the right for his progressive political activism; above all, he declared in an interview with Financial Timesmid-October, that the customs duties promoted by Donald Trump were above all a negotiating weapon. ” At the end of the day, [Trump] is a supporter of free trade. You have to escalate to de-escalate” he said, which was seen as an ideological non-alignment with the president-elect.
Elon Musk launched the attack against Mr. Bessent on Saturday, November 16, by defending the candidacy of the head of Donald Trump’s transition team, Howard Lutnick, 63, boss of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald: “My view is that Bessent is the ‘business as usual’ choice, whereas Howard Lutnick would bring about real change. The status quo is bankrupting America, so we have to change things somehow”attacked Elon Musk on the social network
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Cacophony
In the midst of this cacophony, Donald Trump is preparing, according to New York Timesto conduct additional interviews. In the race would be Kevin Warsh, 54, a former central banker, married to a granddaughter who is an heiress to the queen of cosmetics Estée Lauder; Robert Lighthizer himself; Marc Rowan, 62, head of the Apollo Global Management fund; and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, a rather traditional Republican who campaigned for Mitt Romney and John McCain, former ambassador to Japan but rallied to Trumpism. The final choice will show to what extent we must take seriously the threats of a generalized trade war brandished by Donald Trump as well as his desire to drastically reduce public spending, while Joe Biden left deficits at historic records, excluding Covid- 19.
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