Goldman Sachs alumnus and financier Steven Mnuchin confirmed he has been nominated to be President-elect Trump’s treasury secretary, while billionaire investor Wilbur Ross confirmed he will be appointed commerce secretary Wednesday.
The duo appeared on CNBC to confirm reports that broke Tuesday they had accepted roles offered by Trump. Mnuchin served as Trump’s campaign finance director and Ross has no political experience.
“I didn’t think I’d ever have a boss again,” Wilbur said when asked if he ever thought he would work in government.
Mnuchin, a Wall Street banker and Hollywood insider, will be the second treasury secretary in 10 years to come from Goldman Sachs. He currently works as the CEO of a hedge fund and, like Ross, has no experience in government.
Mnuchin said he believes in Trump since the start of his presidential campaign, and that close relationship will benefit the American people.
“This was never a gamble from my perspective. I’ve known the president-elect for over 15 years, I believed in his policies and I thought he would win,” Mnuchin said. “I did this because I believed in it.”
He added that the top priority of the Trump administration will be not only that jobs return to the country but that they’re good jobs.
“For the average American worker, they’ve gotten nowhere [under President Obama],” Mnuchin said. “Our job is to make sure that the average American worker has wage increases and has good jobs. That’s the priority of this administration.”
Ross said he believes the low unemployment rate and seemingly solid foundation of the current economy is a ruse.
“It’s just not true. And it’s also not true that all jobs are created equal,” he said. “The guy who used to work at the steel mill now flipping hamburgers knows it’s not the same.”
“It’s the quality of jobs as well as the quantity and one of the problems with the recovery is we’ve really created jobs not nearly as remunerative as the jobs we lost. That’s a very big structural problem.”
