United States | Who are the president’s men?

What they have in common is being rich and close to the next president of the United States, which is no surprise. The candidates expected to carry out Donald Trump’s economic policy are known to be rather moderate and even appreciated by both parties.

Donald Trump deliberately chose candidates to shake things up in certain sectors, but this is not at all the case for economic positions, notes Rafael Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec in Montreal .

“For the most part, they come fromestablishment “, he said of the candidates chosen to fill the positions of secretary of Commerce, the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the powerful policeman of the financial markets of the United States.

Unlike Elon Musk who was chosen to clean up the state or Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth who could become Secretary of Defense, the big economic guns chosen by Donald Trump do not raise controversy. “Unless we learn something serious about them, they should be accepted by Congress,” believes the professor.

In addition to the tariffs that Donald Trump wants to impose on all imported products, the next president has floated several ideas that contrast with traditional American economic policy: replacing the chairman of the Federal Reserve to influence monetary policy, making the United States “the bitcoin capital of the world” and block trade with BRICS countries that threaten the use of the US dollar as an international currency.

Will those who will be in control of the main economic levers of the Trump administration be there to carry out this audacious program? “It’s so difficult to say, because with Trump, you always have to make a difference between rhetoric and reality,” said Rafael Jacob. So we’ll see. »

Donald Trump has already started to modify the signals he sent before his election, he points out. Thus, in a recent television interview, the next president indicated that he was not at all certain to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before the end of his term.

The independence of the American central bank, which is considered essential for the stability of financial markets, must be put into perspective, believes Rafael Jacob.

“Officially, the Federal Reserve is politically independent, but unofficially, well before Trump, the border with politics is not watertight,” he says.

That said, the specialist in American politics believes that it is impossible to predict whether Donald Trump’s intentions will be encouraged or hindered by his economic ministers. “All members of the cabinet have the authority that the president wants to give them. Their employment could end at any time. »

Who are they?

Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce

For Canada and Mexico, the Secretary of Commerce will be a pivotal player in Donald Trump’s mandate. The Commerce Secretary heads the department that sets the country’s trade and industrial policy. He would in principle be the boss of the Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer. The sharing of responsibilities between the Secretary of Commerce and the Trade Representative has not yet been clarified, but the two men should work together on the tariff war announced by Donald Trump.

A wealthy Wall Street banker and president of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick would have rather wanted the post of Secretary of the Treasury, according to information which has circulated. He lost his brother and 658 of his employees in the 2001 World Trade Center attack.

Wilbur Ross held this position during Donald Trump’s first term.

Jamieson Greer, Trade Representative

The US Government Trade Representative is responsible for implementing US trade policy. He is not a member of the cabinet, but he is part of the president’s executive services.

Jamieson Greer, the one tipped for this role, will likely be responsible for negotiations with Canada and Mexico.

He knows the song since he would succeed Robert Lighthizer, for whom he was Chief of Staff during the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, renamed the Canada–United States–Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA). ).

He is a staunch defender of tariffs, which he believes are not inflationary, which is the opposite of what the vast majority of economists say.

Born in California and aged 44, Jamieson Lee Greer is a lawyer who served in the army and who did part of his studies at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury

He is the Minister of Finance of the American government. In this capacity, he is responsible for economic and fiscal policy as well as the federal budget.

Scott Bessent, whom Donald Trump would like to see in this position, would succeed Janet Yellen, a big gun who has held this position since 2021 and who was previously president of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States.

Born in South Carolina, Scott Bessent manages Key Square Holding, a hedge fund. He is a former collaborator of speculator George Soros, who collected $1 billion betting on the decline of the pound sterling in 1992. The couple he forms with a man, John Freeman, has two children.

He is not considered the most pro-tariff in Trump’s entourage, but he could be the one who increases the grip of political power on the American Federal Reserve, an avowed intention of the next administration. Scott Bessent’s task promises to be complex: he must both reduce taxes and reduce the United States’ deficit, which has reached record levels.

Paul Atkins, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission

The 66-year-old lawyer has already been a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the American stock market watchdog, between 2002 and 2006, under the administration of George W. Bush. He was there when financier Bernard Madoff developed his fraudulent scheme which came to light in 2008.

This apostle of the free market is also an ardent promoter of cryptocurrencies. He is the co-chair of the Token Alliance, a lobbyist group that promotes digital assets.

The announcement of his choice to head the SEC sent bitcoin soaring above US$100,000.

Like Jamieson Greer, Paul Atkins lived in France where he worked for the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardell for two years.

The SEC and Elon Musk have had a rocky relationship in the past, and Donald Trump’s new friend roundly criticized it when he came under investigation over his 2022 purchase of Twitter.

Economic advisors

Among the economic advisors who will support the next president, there are some who are less unanimous. Peter Navarro, 75, served as an economic adviser in Trump’s first term. He served four months in prison for refusing to testify before Congress which investigated the events of January 6.

An economist by training and author of several books, Peter Navarro believes in the virtues of tariffs much more than the president, for whom tariffs are above all a negotiating tool.

He was the one who said there was a special place in hell for those who would retaliate against American tariffs, targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

At the head of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett will also have a key role in Donald Trump’s economic team. An economist, professor and researcher at the Federal Reserve, he served as a Treasury advisor during the reigns of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He co-wrote a book, Dow 36 000in 1999, which predicted that the index would reach this threshold in 2005. That did not happen. There was the bursting of the techno bubble in 2008 and the threshold of 36,000 points was only reached in 2021.