Trump names his picks for Treasury Secretary, surgeon general, FDA, CDC and HUD in a flurry of announcements

In a flurry of Friday night announcements, President-elect Donald Trump said he had selected Scott Bessent, a financier who embraced MAGA, to head the Treasury Department; Russell Vought, a Project 2025 contributor, to run the White House budget office again; and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon) for labor secretary. The president-elect also said he had selected Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor, to serve as surgeon general; and former congressman Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists. Scott’s story is that of the American Dream.”

The longtime hedge fund executive, Trump said in his statement, will help him “usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the World’s leading Economy, Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism, Destination for Capital, while always, and without question, maintaining the U.S. Dollar as the Reserve Currency of the World.”

A four-paragraph biography of Bessent provided as part of the statement from the Trump transition team does not mention his previous employment for Soros Fund Management — founded by Democratic megadonor and philanthropist George Soros — by name, where he once served as chief investment officer. But the biography does mention some of his work, including his work on the team that famously made a fortune by shorting the British pound in 1992.

Former football player, Texas legislator picked to lead Housing and Urban Development

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Scott Turner to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a crucial role amid a national housing crisis and widespread affordability problems.

Turner, a former professional football player, served in Trump’s first administration as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, a group of White House advisers tasked with magnifying effects of opportunity zones, an economic tool for investing in distressed areas.

Trump selects surgeon and Fox News contributor to helm FDA

Donald Trump selected Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and Fox News contributor, to helm the Food and Drug Administration, a roughly $7 billion agency charged with making decisions touching the daily lives of every American. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the agency needs Makary to “course-correct and refocus the Agency.” Trump said Makary will focus on evaluating “harmful chemicals poisoning” the food supply and drugs given to youths, in an effort to focus on the childhood chronic disease epidemic.

Trump said Friday that he plans to nominate Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In his statement announcing his decision, Trump touted Weldon, a former Florida congressman, for being “a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues” and for having “successfully worked with the CDC to enact a ban on patents for human embryos.”

While in Congress, Weldon supported the idea that a vaccine preservative had caused a spike in autism cases around the world — a claim that has been debunked by scientists.

Trump announced on Friday night that he intends to nominate Janette Nesheiwat to serve as the next surgeon general.

Nesheiwat is a double board-certified medical doctor who serves as a medical contributor on Fox News.

Trump also announced Friday night that he intends to nominate Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon) to be his Labor Secretary. She recently lost her reelection bid.

“Lori has worked tirelessly with both Business and Labor to build America’s workforce, and support the hardworking men and women of America,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his pick, adding that he looks forward to working with her “to create tremendous opportunity for American Workers.”

Trump selects Project 2025 contributor as budget chief

Donald Trump announced Friday that he has selected Russell Vought to again lead the White House budget office, returning the hard-charging conservative to a critical position in the federal government.

Vought, who also led the White House Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first administration, wrote a chapter of Project 2025 on transforming the executive office of the presidency and has embraced a strikingly aggressive set of legal theories for asserting presidential power. The budget office implements budget policy across the administration, overseeing spending and regulation. Trump repeatedly disavowed the Heritage Foundation project during his campaign, but that does not appear to have stopped the president-elect from returning one of its architects to the White House. (Source: The Washington Post)