US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he personally vetted a senior Treasury employee on Elon Musk’s government efficiency team who has read-only access to federal payment data, and that there’s been no “tinkering” with the department’s payment systems.

Bessent, a hedge fund manager, becomes the nation’s 79th Treasury secretary. He will lead President Trump’s economic agenda.

The first openly gay person in the role has the delicate balancing act of cutting taxes and curbing deficits while putting forward a plan on tariffs that doesn’t jeopardize growth.

Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz deliver insight and analysis on the latest headlines from the White House and Capitol Hill

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was interviewed Thursday by Bloomberg Radio’s Saleha Mohsin in the historic Cash Room in the Treasury Building, which is just a few hundred yards from the White House.

Scott Bessent was sworn in as Treasury Secretary on Tuesday, taking the helm of one of the government agencies most critical to President Donald Trump’s sweeping economic agenda.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday demanded Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attend a meeting with the Democratic Caucus “as soon as possible” to answer questions about the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to a sensitive federal payment system.