CNN
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Newly elected Treasury Secretary Donald Trump’s choice stands in stark contrast to some of the more controversial and questionable Cabinet picks he has announced to date. Scott Bessent won’t panic Wall Street, the industry he will oversee.

Minister of Finance is a serious job for a serious person who can meet immediate deadlines and the pressures that are pressing on the financial markets from around the world. In many ways, the Secretary of the Treasury is the quarterback of the economy.

A radical selection could have roiled investors and increased the risk to Trump’s already complex economic agenda.

Wall Street was unfazed by the selection. Some applauded it.

“Scott Bessent is considered by many observers to be one of the most respected and competent contenders,” said Judge Glock, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “He has maintained his ties to traditional business and financial groups and to Trump loyalists.”

In other words, Trump did not pick Wall Street’s Matt Gaetz or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Treasury Department.

That doesn’t mean Bessent will push back on Trump’s policies, including higher tariffs across the board, large-scale tax cuts or mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Bessent is a relatively recent MAGA convert who founded hedge fund Key Square and previously worked as Chief Investment Officer for Soros Fund Management. Last week he wrote an op-ed on Fox News in support of Trump’s policies.

But Glock said Bessent would serve as a steady hand guiding the economy.

“On the issue that most sharply divides Trump and traditional business leaders — tariffs — Bessent has focused on the value of tariffs as a tool to encourage better deals with trading partners, which has a long and bipartisan history,” Glock noted.

One of the duties of the Treasury Secretary is to keep Wall Street calm and confident during times of economic or market turmoil. In other words: Prevent a blip from becoming a panic. That’s why Bessent was widely seen as the frontrunner for the job before ultimately claiming it.

Some parts of Trump’s inner circle, including Elon Musk, publicly advocated for a disruptor in the role — namely Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who Musk said will “actually effect change,” unlike Bessent who said “business as usual ‘ would be. Lutnick was ultimately selected as Secretary of Commerce – an important but ultimately less crucial role in market decision-making.

A steady attitude, a key characteristic of a successful treasury secretary, likely played a role in Trump’s eventual decision to select Bessent.

“I don’t think there is a meaningful difference in tariff policy outcomes between Bessent and Lutnick,” said Isaac Boltansky, BTIG’s director of policy research. “But there are differences in temperament and experience that will matter when the next Treasury Secretary interacts with the public, lawmakers.”, and foreign officials.”

The choice of Bessent proves that some guardrails against Trump still exist — especially when it comes to Wall Street and managing the country’s money flows.

“Scott understands markets, economics, people and geopolitics better than anyone I’ve ever interacted with,” said Kyle Bass, a billionaire hedge fund investor at Hayman Capital Management, in a X post last week.

During his first term, Trump was obsessed with market movements and viewed the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a real-time barometer of his success. Trump regularly tweeted even the most mundane market milestones, a sharp departure from the hands-off approach his predecessors took with the market.

So Bessent will be tasked with trying to implement policies that serve the president-elect’s agenda while keeping the market boom going.

That may not be easy: During Trump’s first trade war with China, markets plunged several times, at least in part, due to fears about Trump’s trade policies.

For example, in December 2018, markets were in turmoil due to fears over the US-China trade war. That market turbulence left Trump hungry to strike a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a high-stakes meeting in Argentina, sources told CNN at the time. When markets failed to recover, Trump expressed concern about plummeting stocks and even worried that the losses could hurt him politically.

It’s easy to see how a similar story could play out in 2025, as Trump has promised to impose 60% tariffs on China, a leading US trading partner and source of supplies and parts for US companies.

Economists have warned that Trump’s China tariffs and his proposals for blanket tariffs of 10% to 20% on all US imports will be inflationary.

A similar story could play out if investors and CEOs begin to oppose Trump’s plans to deport millions of undocumented workers — a move that could also increase inflation.

Investors could also react very negatively if Trump were to make a move to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, with whom Trump has had a complicated and sometimes contentious relationship. The Treasury Secretary works closely with both the central bank and the White House.