WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, says he will not seek to join the President-elect’s new administration but is ready to offer advice to his successor, including on how to strengthen sanctions on Iran and Russia, and contain the growth of US debt.
In an interview, Mnuchin told Reuters it was important for the Treasury to work towards strengthening US trade policy.
This includes holding Beijing to its US goods purchase commitments in Trump’s January 2020 Phase One deal to rebalance US-China trade, which he said “they’re not living up to”.
Serving as Treasury chief during Trump’s first term “was the experience of a lifetime, and I’m happy to advise on the outside”, Mnuchin said last Friday. “I’m sure they’ll have a lot of great choices.”
Reuters reported last Friday that two prominent hedge fund investors, Scott Bessent, founder of Key Square Group, and John Paulson had emerged as the top contenders for Treasury Secretary, and that Bessent had met with Trump.
Mnuchin founded Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm, after leaving office with investments from Softbank Group and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sovereign wealth fund.
Mnuchin said it was important that all parts of Trump’s economic team – the Treasury, Commerce Department, US Trade Representative’s office and White House National Economic Council – work closely together as a group, as they did during trade and tariff negotiations with China in 2018 and 2019.
Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, said financial markets experience was important for the Treasury Secretary to have, but so is a strong management background.
This is because Treasury spans vast areas of the economy from regulatory and tax policy to international sanctions, with the latter taking considerable time during his tenure, he said.
The United States needs stronger enforcement of financial sanctions and more action to cut off oil revenues from Iran and Russia, he said, noting that sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine have been “more of a headline” than effective. — Reuters
