Donald Trump 2.0’s Cabinet continues to expand as the United States president-elect named two additional Republicans to serve in his administration.

On Friday, November 22, Trump nominated billionaire Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, choosing the hedge fund manager to help carry out a program promising tax cuts and tariffs.

On the other hand, former congressman and physician Dave Weldon was chosen as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Bessent, 62, is the CEO of Key Square Group. A native of South Carolina, Bessent studied at Yale University and served as chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, the macroeconomic investment firm of billionaire George Soros.

In 2015, he raised capital, including $2 billion from Soros, to create his own hedge fund, according to a report by the AFP news agency.

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s greatest international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump said in a statement Friday.

“He will help me usher in a new golden age for the United States as we strengthen our position as the world’s largest economy,” Trump said, adding that Bessent would also help “revitalize the private sector and curb the unsustainable path. of the federal debt. »

The hedge fund manager has known the Trump family for 30 years. He had recently served as an advisor to Trump.

Bessent called for tax reform and deregulation to boost growth.

Dave Weldon, 71, served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida’s 15th district from 1995 to 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2008. Weldon received his medical degree from the medical school at the University at Buffalo in 1981. He had served in the United States Army.

In a statement, Trump said Friday that Weldon would “proudly return the CDC to its true purpose and work to end the chronic disease epidemic.”

Weldon would replace Dr. Mandy Cohen, an internal medicine physician and former head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, where she led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a member of Congress, Weldon introduced a bill that would give responsibility for vaccine safety in the country to an independent agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, effectively removing most research on vaccine safety. vaccine safety from the CDC, according to a USA Today report.

(With contribution from agencies)