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Scott Bessent Set to Serve Billionaires, Big Banks, and Big Oil as Treasury Secretary
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a confirmation hearing today for Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. Bessent spent his career on Wall Street where he helped garner a $1 billion profit through currency trades that collapsed the British pound. In response, Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate, Public Citizen issued the following statement:
“If a misguided Senate confirms him, Scott Bessent must apply the lessons from the 2008 financial crisis and the 2023 regional bank failures: Responsible oversight protects hard-working Americans by deterring reckless banking and taxpayer bailouts. Bessent must oblige the law, not Project 2025’s Quixotic libertarian fantasies.
“Bessent has planted a flag calling for renewal of the huge giveaways for the rich that were put in place back in Trump’s first term and are set to end in 2025. Instead of more tax giveaways, we need millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations to pay their fair share. And we need a Treasury Secretary committed to ensuring that the IRS is poised to go after wealthy tax cheats. Bessent appears more willing to go to bat for his wealthy investor friends than for everyday Americans.
“At a moment when the insurance industry finds itself at the forefront of the climate crisis, Bessent needs to address the inherent risk climate change poses to global financial markets. Instead, Scott Bessent seems intent on locking in fossil fuel dependence, regardless of the destabilizing impacts this will have on the U.S. economy and financial system. The next Treasury Secretary must be focused on building a clean-energy economy that lowers costs and creates jobs, not adopting policies that help line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry while selling out climate-vulnerable communities.”
Check out Public Citizen’s Tracker on Trump Appointees’ Corporate Conflicts of Interest.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Critics Warn Trump Picks for EPA and Interior Would Only Serve Billionaire Polluters
Climate advocates are sounding the alarm over nominees Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin.
Jan 16, 2025
As Republican-controlled Senate committees held Thursday morning confirmation hearings for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's picks to lead the Department of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency, climate advocates warned that the pair would serve billionaire polluters, endangering the American people, the nation's natural resources, and the planet.
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's choice for interior secretary, appeared before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, while former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, his nominee for EPA administrator, met with the chamber's Committee on Environment and Public Works.
"Doug Burgum, the billionaire governor of North Dakota, bought his way into Trump's orbit by launching a long-shot presidential campaign with his fortune from selling his software company to Microsoft," said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, in a statement. "Burgum is also a real estate and technology investor who leases his own land for oil exploration to Continental Resources, run by close Trump ally Harold Hamm."
As Accountable.US, another watchdog, pointed out, Burgum also leases his land to Hess and "reportedly played a major role in facilitating an infamous meeting at Mar-a-Lago between Donald Trump and a handful of big oil CEOs," including Hamm.
Also highlighting the nominee's reported role in the Florida event "where plutocrats were asked to donate a billion dollars to Trump in exchange for gutting environmental protections," Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, quipped that "if Doug Burgum got any closer to the oil and gas industry, he'd need to wear a hard hat."
"It's clear who would benefit from him running the Department of the Interior," Manuel said. "For more than a century, our national parks and public lands and waters have been part of what makes us special as a country. The incoming Trump administration wants to give those lands and waters away to corporate polluters and billionaires. We need to protect every inch of our public lands from corporate interests and polluters so future generations can explore the treasured lands that connect us all."
Slocum similarly said that "his extensive corporate ties ensure that the Interior Department would be led by a Big Oil lackey who will prioritize the American Petroleum Institute over the American people," and "would open up the door for massive exploitation of the nation's public lands for oil, gas, coal, and mining."
"Trump has named Burgum to lead a new White House energy council, potentially named the National Energy Dominance Council," Slocum noted, citing Politico. He also pointed out that Trump has "given the interior secretary a role on the National Security Council for the first time," warning that the president-elect may use "a bogus national energy emergency" to push dirty energy.
Slocum's colleague David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Climate Program, expressed similar concerns about Zeldin, saying that if allowed to become EPA administrator, he "would turn the agency on its head and run it for the benefit of billionaire polluters at the expense of the American people."
"In Congress, Zeldin voted repeatedly against measures to protect our environment and fix the climate crisis, and Trump says he is counting on Zeldin for 'swift deregulatory decisions,'" Arkush stressed, pointing to Zeldin's pledge "to use the EPA to 'pursue energy dominance.'"
"The U.S. is already the largest producer of petroleum products in history, is the world's largest fossil gas producer, and is exporting gas at record levels," he noted. "What's left to dominate except American families—attacking their health and pocketbooks while setting their homes on fire in pursuit of ever more fossil fuel profits?"
"The Senate should reject Trump's shameful pro-polluter, pro-billionaire, anti-environment, anti-American-people nominees," Arkush argued. Sierra Club legislative director Melinda Pierce also urged senators to reject Zeldin, to "protect the lives and livelihoods of this and all future generations."
"He has failed to adequately address the very real threat climate change poses to our nation as the American people wake each day to more deadly fires, more flooding, and dangerous record temperatures stealing more of our lives and land each day," Pierce said of Zeldin, nodding to the fires raging in California and calling out his record in Congress.
In addition to opposing money for the national flood insurance program and voting to drastically slash EPA funding, "Zeldin has called for the repeal of standards that protect clean air and clean water," she continued. "Him ascending to a role that would allow him to do polluters' bidding from within the agency tasked with administering and enforcing those protections makes him a threat to us all."
After Zeldin's hearing, Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that he "was asked several questions about fossil fuel industry propaganda campaigns, as well as the absurd theories spread by President Trump regarding our environment and the planet. At every turn, Zeldin danced around the questions. It is clear that Zeldin will be a rubber stamp for industry priorities, jeopardizing clean air and water, and driving up costs for everyday families."
Confirmation hearings for Trump's energy & environment teams are this week. Lee Zeldin has promised to eliminate key environmental regulations. Chris Wright is notorious for cherry-picking data to defend the fossil fuel industry. Doug Burgum supports increased fossil fuel drilling.
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— Earthjustice (@earthjustice.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 9:52 AM
This week has featured a flurry of hearings for Trump nominees—including Tuesday events for Fox News host and former Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, the president-elect's pick to lead the Department of Transportation, and Chris Wright, a fracking CEO and promoter of climate disinformation on track to be the next energy secretary.
Duffy and Wright have provoked intense criticism from climate groups—including members of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, who held a protest at Wright's hearing during which 10 campaigners were arrested.
"Zeldin, Burgum, and Wright are unqualified to serve in these critical environmental positions," Allie Rosenbluth, United States program manager at Oil Change International, said last week. "With Zeldin and Burgum each receiving hundreds of thousands in fossil fuel campaign money and Wright's position as a fracking CEO, their loyalties lie with industry profits, not protecting Americans' air, water, climate, and working-class families. These men will choose items off the fossil fuel industry's wishlist over the good of the American people every time."
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Thursday
introduced a bill that would ban former oil, gas, and coal executives or lobbyists from multiple federal posts—including EPA administrator and secretaries of energy, the interior, and transportation—for a decade after leaving their private sector jobs.
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Senate Democrats' Bill Would Block Trump Fossil Fuel 'Cartel' From Running Key Agencies
"Big Oil executives and fossil fuel lobbyists shouldn't be able to turn public agencies into private profit machines for fossil fuel shareholders," argued Sen. Ed Markey.
Jan 16, 2025
Faced with the imminent White House return of Republican President-elect Donald Trump and an administration stacked with fossil fuel industry veterans, a pair of progressive U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would ban former oil, gas, and coal executives or lobbyists from leading numerous energy-related federal agencies for 10 years after leaving their private sector jobs.
The Banning In Government Oil Industry Lobbyists (BIG OIL) from the Cabinet Act—put forth by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)—would apply to prospective secretaries of agriculture, defense, energy, the interior, state, and transportation; as well as key posts including administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; White House chief of staff; and directors of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Office of Management and Budget.
"Let's pass this bill and get fossil fuel executives and their ill-gotten bucks out of our government."
"Donald Trump isn't building a Cabinet, he's installing a cartel. Big Oil executives and fossil fuel lobbyists shouldn't be able to turn public agencies into private profit machines for fossil fuel shareholders," said Markey. "This is a clear ethical line—their work polluting our environment, destroying our climate, and prioritizing corporate profits over democracy must not be rewarded with even more power over the very safeguards set to protect American households from their influence."
"Especially in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires and more frequent and dangerous disasters fueled by climate change, we can't afford to have a fossil fuel CEO like Chris Wright help the industry capture our federal agencies further for oil profits," Markey added, referring to the fracking services company chief executive nominated by Trump to head the Department of Energy. "We must have government agencies helmed by responsible, qualified executives without blatant conflicts of interest."
Merkley said: "Climate chaos fueled by dirty energy is humanity's greatest challenge, and Trump wants to make sure we fail that challenge by handing our government over to Big Oil. Let's pass this bill and get fossil fuel executives and their ill-gotten bucks out of our government."
Scores of climate, environmental justice, government transparency, and other groups have endorsed the bill.
"The fossil fuel revolving door has dominated American energy policy for decades and could poison our environment for centuries to come," Food & Water Watch policy adviser Drew Guillory said in a statement Thursday. "Oil and gas companies cannot be allowed to regulate themselves and use the government to guarantee their profits. The BIG OIL from the Cabinet Act is a crucial step in returning control of our climate to the American people."
Kelsey Crane, senior policy advocate at Earthworks, said: "The fossil fuel industry is notorious for spending millions of dollars to delay climate action and undermine progress on environmental justice. This bill ensures big polluters are not granted positions of power where it is guaranteed they would degrade environmental protections and block investments in a clean energy future."
Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay noted that "Los Angeles is on fire. Asheville is just starting to rebuild."
"The climate crisis is here and it's happening because oil and gas CEOs disregarded science and chose to keep burning fossil fuels," Shiney-Ajay added. "They chose to sacrifice millions of homes and lives so they could keep profiting. Those same people should not be in charge of creating energy policy."
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Trump Treasury Pick's Economic Plan Would 'Require Massive Cuts to Anti-Poverty Programs': Analysis
Scott Bessent's "3-3-3" agenda "requires brutal cuts to health and nutrition and higher costs for families at the grocery store," said analysts at the Center for American Progress.
Jan 16, 2025
At his confirmation hearing on Thursday, hedge fund manager and U.S. treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee that at the helm of the Treasury Department he would usher in an "economic golden age."
But a report by two policy analysts details how Bessent's signature "3-3-3" plan would only be achievable by gutting programs for some of the nation's most vulnerable households—extending the "golden age" only to wealthy people and corporations for whom the Trump administration plans to slash taxes.
At the Center for American Progress, senior director of economic policy Brendan Duke and senior director of federal budget policy Bobby Kogan completed "the accounting to determine what it would take to achieve" Bessent's 3-3-3 agenda, particularly his plan to cut the federal budget deficit down to 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP). The plan also calls for real GDP growth to reach 3% and the production of 3 million barrels of oil by 2028.
While reducing the budget deficit and simultaneously protecting programs American families rely on is a "laudable goal," wrote Duke and Kogan, Bessent has "explicitly stated that extending the expiring 2017 tax cuts is a priority, and he would likely rule out tax increases on the wealthy to pay for them"—suggesting that the Treasury nominee's 3-3-3 agenda would require new taxes on imported goods and "massive cuts to anti-poverty programs."
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the budget deficit will represent 5.8% of the nation's GDP in 2028.
"The president-elect is stacking his cabinet with one goal in mind: more tax breaks for his billionaire boys club and major corporations."
With Bessent proposing an extension of the 2017 tax cuts—which are projected to grow the budget deficit by about $4 trillion over a decade—the elimination of Inflation Reduction Act energy investments, and a pause on nondefense discretionary spending increases, said Duke and Kogan, Bessent's plan would "actually increase the projected 2028 budget deficit from 5.8 to 6.0% of GDP, or $1 trillion above the 3% target.
Without any cuts to Medicare and Social Security—which Trump has said he would exempt from cuts—or defense spending, says the analysis, Bessent's deficit target would require both:
- A 20% tax on all imported goods and a 60% tax increase on imports from China, costing the average family between $2,200-$3,900, and
- Cutting the federal budget by nearly $500 billion in 2028 alone, which couldn't be done without a 31% cut to spending including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and veterans' compensation and pensions—on top of Bessent's 6% cut to nondefense discretionary spending.
"The combination of policies that would deliver the deficit reduction proposed in Bessent's 3-3-3 economic plan would raise taxes on low- and middle-income families and gut healthcare, nutrition assistance, and veterans' programs while still cutting taxes for the wealthy," wrote Duke and Kogan. "Such a plan would hike families' costs both because broad-based tariffs would increase prices and because Americans would have to pay more for healthcare and food due to cuts to federal programs that help lower the cost of living."
With families across the U.S. facing "brutal cuts to health and nutrition" and higher prices at the grocery store under Bessent's plan, said Duke, the wealthiest households would still get "a net tax cut."
At The Washington Post, columnist Catherine Rampell wrote that "the magnitude of cuts required to make Bessent's arithmetic work is breathtaking."
"If you add up all the tax-cut promises Trump made during his campaign, the budget hole swells to almost $10 trillion," wrote Rampell. "To compensate, government programs would have to shrink by two-thirds. Alternatively, Trump could raise taxes on the middle class. Pick your poison."
On social media, government watchdog Accountable.US denounced Bessent's defense of Trump's tax cuts—under which "the top 1% saw benefits nearly three times larger than families in the bottom 60%"—and of the president-elect's proposed tariffs, which leading economists say would "reignite" inflation.
"Scott Bessent's nomination isn't about helping American families," said the group. "It's about lining the pockets of the ultra-wealthy and doubling down on policies that hurt the middle class."
Meanwhile, critics of Bessent on Thursday pointed to new reporting from Politico that Senate Democrats have accused the Treasury nominee of dodging $910,182 in Medicare taxesfor income he made through his hedge fund from 2021-23. A memo circulated by Democrats stated that Bessent argued that as a "limited partner" in his fund, he was not liable for taxes on certain income.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) addressed the memo at Bessent's hearing, saying: "Like a number of Wall Street fund managers, Mr. Bessent makes use of a tricky legal maneuver to opt out of paying into Medicare."
"The billionaire hedge fund manager Trump handpicked to oversee a massive tax giveaway for the ultra-wealthy doesn't pay his own taxes," said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative. "It's almost too on the nose. The president-elect is stacking his cabinet with one goal in mind: more tax breaks for his billionaire boys club and major corporations."
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