(Adnkronos) – In the panorama of appointments of far-right ideologues and loyalists for many positions, even delicate ones, in the next Trump administration, it is striking that the president-elect has instead chosen experts with more conventional and mainstream positions for his economic team. A choice that prompts questions about how much the tycoon really intends to apply the threatened tariff policy, with the announced 20% increase for all trading partners.
Unlike the outcry, also from Republicans, for the controversial appointments, which for Matt Gaetz led to the withdrawal of his nomination to Justice, the appointments to the two most important economic positions of the future administration are receiving bipartisan praise: the globally respected hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to the Treasury and Kevin Hassett, an economist at conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute, to lead the White House National Economic Council, who have well-established relationships with the Washington establishment.
Democrats obviously disagree with many of their positions, but economic experts from both sides of the aisle believe that these two respected figures will be able to act as a moderating influence on Trump’s extremist impulses to disrupt the global trade order. “If it were Hassett or Bessent alone, then it would be hard to say, but the combination of the two should have some moderating influence on tariffs,” says Constance Hunter, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In particular, the appointment of Bessent, who began his career in high finance alongside George Soros, the number one enemy of the far right in the US and beyond, has been interpreted as a loss of ground for Elon Musk, who called it a choice too much “business as usual” and not the change that the richest man in the world hopes the new Trump administration, with his help, will bring. While Hassett’s choice, who played a central role in shaping the tax cuts in the first Trump administration, perhaps indicates an intention to focus on a new tax cut, rather than tariffs.
It has always been clear that for Trump, market stability is a higher priority than rebalancing international trade, comments a former member of the tycoon’s first administration, recalling how he has always boasted about the excellent investment performance during his first term and explaining concerns about market reactions would have pushed the president-elect to choose more traditional economists.
From Trump’s entourage, however, they warn that these appointments are not necessarily proof that the new administration will not pursue an aggressive trade policy, pointing to the president-elect’s renewed threats to impose drastic tariff increases on the three main trading partners, Mexico, Canada and China, from day one in the White House. On the other hand, both Bessent and Hassett have reiterated their support for Trump’s trade agenda in recent months, proving ready to defend measures that many of their colleagues consider counterproductive.
“I think they are mainstream choices, clearly much more conservative than liberal, but basically in the center, mainstream,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, who calls Bessent and Hassett, “from my perspective, a very good choice, encouraging”. “But I don’t know how much influence they will have on trade policy, I think it will go on with its own dynamics,” he then adds.
A dynamic that could be carried forward by the Commerce team in which Robert E. Lighthizer, the trade policy hawk who, as US Trade Representative, was the architect of the tariff war of the first administration, does not appear, at least with an official appointment, and who was aiming for the Treasury or Commerce in the new administration.
Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street CEO whom Musk wanted at the Treasury as an agent of change, went to Commerce instead, while 44-year-old Jamieson Greer, Lighthizer’s ‘pupil’, who had been his chief of staff during the first Trump administration, was appointed US Representative. Finally, some people recall that even in the first administration there was a Wall Street man at the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, skeptical about tariffs, but this did not prevent Trump from imposing over 300 billion dollars of tariffs on products from China and other countries.
