Former President Donald Trump is considering tapping hedge fund manager Jeff Yass to serve as his Treasury secretary if he wins the presidential election in November, a report said Thursday.
Yass’ investment firm, Susquehanna International Group, owns a 15% stake in ByteDance – the Chinese parent company of TikTok – and Yass personally has a 7% stake in the company worth about $21 billion, according to NBC News.
Bloomberg News first reported Trump’s interest in having Yass serve in his Cabinet.
The outlet notes that former Trump administration US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Key Square Group LP founder Scott Bessent and Paulson & Co., founder John Paulson are also in the mix for the Treasury secretary spot.
Multiple Trump campaign officials on Thursday denied that the presumptive Republican nominee for president was mulling over potential Cabinet appointments ahead of his general election battle with President Biden.
“President Trump is focused on the election, not staffing the Administration,” one official told The Post.
“There have been no discussions about who will serve in a second Trump Administration,” Trump campaign adviser Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump will ultimately choose the best people for his Cabinet to undo all the damage Crooked Joe Biden has done to our country.”
The Post reported last week that Yass, a billionaire GOP megadonor, had been personally calling Republican members of the House of Representatives to try to halt legislation seeking to compel ByteDance to sell off TikTok within six months or face the popular social media app being banned in the US.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act easily passed the House on Wednesday in a 352-65 vote.
Efforts to force a sale of the popular video-sharing app stem from concerns that ByteDance could allow the Chinese Communist Party access to user data.
Last week, Trump signaled his opposition to the TikTok divestment legislation, arguing that it would help Facebook, which he called “a true Enemy of the People!”
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” the former president claimed in a Truth Social post, apparently referring to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” he added.
Trump’s opposition to the legislation came following an invitation from Yass to speak at a gathering hosted by Club for Growth, a pro-business group that opposes a ban on TikTok.
Trump has previously supported banning TikTok in the US, going as far as signing an executive order in August 2020 that gave ByteDance 45 days to sell the social media platform.
Trump’s order was blocked in court. Biden revoked the ban upon taking office.
ByteDance denies the company would share user data with the CCP, calling the concerns “misinformation.”