Bessent’s victory

Good morning and welcome to White House Watch! I'm Steff Chávez, the FT's Washington reporter.

We’ll be off on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and back in a week. But before we stuff ourselves, let’s get into:

• How Scott Bessent won the Treasury battle
• Palace intrigue at Mar-a-Lago
• What Trump could do to Nato

After so much Treasury secretary drama, Scott Bessent came out on top.

Trump’s court cycled through candidates in what became a bitter contest , but the president-elect came full circle in selecting Bessent [free to read]. The move signalled that Trump — not Elon Musk or anybody else — makes the big calls.?

A priority for Trump was tapping a staunch supporter of his populist economic policies, particularly the sweeping tariffs he campaigned on (just last night he said he would slap 25 per cent tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada , and extra levies on Chinese imports).

Apollo Global Management chief executive Marc Rowan , who was on the Treasury shortlist, made it clear to Trump that he would not be a yes man, an independent streak that probably hurt his candidacy, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s other priority was installing someone who would protect his most treasured metric: the US stock market.?

As the candidates battled and the president-elect remained unsure, Bessent needed to grab Trump’s attention back. . . . Register for the FT to keep reading the newsletter for free .