CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump has offered the position of Treasury secretary to billionaire Scott Bessent, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Bessent, 62, advised Trump on economic policy during his campaign and is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer at Soros Fund Management, a hedge fund founded by Democratic megadonor George Soros. He rose to fame at the company for leading efforts to bet against the British pound and the Japanese yen, which earned the company billions of dollars in profits.

Allies previously told CNN that Trump liked Bessent’s billionaire bona fides and that he converted to the MAGA movement after working for Soros.

Secretary of the Treasury is considered the most important financial job in any government and has become a trophy position for many wealthy Wall Street donors. If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent’s first days on the job could be even more challenging than usual as he will be under pressure to tackle the federal debt limit and Trump’s campaign promises.

Since Trump’s election victory, the US dollar has risen and reached a one-year high. The rally “is a vote of confidence in U.S. international leadership and in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” Bessent said in a Nov. 10 op-ed he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. Similar rallies in financial markets, he said, were signs that investors “expect the Trump agenda to promote non-inflationary growth that will boost private investment.”

He then advocated that Trump implement policies that include deregulation and tax cuts and “tackle the debt burden,” which he attributed to “four years of reckless spending.”

However, Bessent made no mention of tariffs in the piece. As a candidate, Trump promised to impose 60% tariffs on goods from China, as well as 10% tariffs on goods from other countries.

In recent interviews with the Financial Times and CNBC, Bessent has voiced support for a more gradual approach to tariffs, aimed at containing the potentially inflationary backlash that could result from imposing such levies.

As CNN previously reported, Trump had cast a wider net for the position in recent days amid a bitter battle between Bessent and another top candidate for the role, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who is also co-chairing Trump’s transition. The president-elect earlier this week named Lutnick as his pick to lead the Commerce Department.

This story is current and will be updated.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche, Tami Luhby and Matt Egan contributed to this report.