Treasury nominee Mnuchin was Trump’s top fundraiser

And now, the cruel punchline: The man behind it is being nominated for treasury secretary by a self-proclaimed billionaire populist.

The incoming treasury secretary will face a number of hard issues in a Trump administration, especially if the president-elect makes good on promises to have a more confrontational approach to China.

Steven Mnuchin, finance chairman for the Trump campaign, was picked as Treasury secretary.

Mnuchin would become a key player in world economics, meeting frequently with foreign finance ministers, and in overseeing the US tax and financial system.

Although Mnuchin isn’t a stranger to banking, having worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years and later playing a key role in recapitalizing and running a major bank, he doesn’t have a policy record.

The 2010 healthcare overhaul, aimed at expanding insurance coverage to millions more Americans, triggered a long, bitter fight between the White House and congressional Republicans, who said it created unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry.

He left Goldman to join Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund ESL Investments. Former CIA director retired Gen. David Petraeus arrives at Trump Tower talks with reporters after a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, in NY. Former BB&T Bank CEO John Allison is an Ayn Rand-worshipping gold bug who wants to eliminate the Federal Reserve and would burn pretty much every existing bank regulation in a funeral pyre. Mnuchin was chairman at the time. In 2011, dozens of demonstrators descended on Mnuchin’s $26.5 million home in the wealthy Bel Air neighborhood to protest OneWest’s eviction tactics, according to the Los Angeles Times. Employees also failed to make sure they had the correct loan documentation before the bank seized a home. Using a Freedom of Information Act request, the California Reinvestment Coalition determined that OneWest’s reverse-mortgage servicing subsidiary Financial Freedom was responsible for 39 percent of reverse-mortgage foreclosures nationwide, typically something that goes to senior citizens.

While somewhat expected, Mnuchin’s appointment is unlikely to be without controversy.

The 35-year-old would hold one of the key positions in the U.S. administration, taking on responsibility for Trump’s policies of ripping up trade agreements, introducing tax cuts and a wide range of other issues.

Yet unlike Rubin and Paulson and unlike President Barack Obama’s two treasury secretaries, Timothy Geithner and Jacob Lew, Mnuchin would bring no government experience to Treasury, something that could prove a hurdle in navigating the tricky politics of Washington. Lewis reinstated her insurance and the bank still didn’t back off.

You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. As Treasury secretary he would take a lead role in developing policies aimed at boosting the country’s economic growth.

Mnuchin was a campaign loyalist and fundraiser who built his career sniffing out undervalued assets and converting them into massive profits, the Wall Street Journal reports. Trump has expressed interest in dismantling Dodd-Frank. “Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton”. He also was briefly co-chairman of Relativity Media before the coming filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Although Mnuchin was involved in various business ventures, including the likes of being an entrepreneur, a Wall Street investor, a Hollywood producer, amongst other things, at first, he was still considered the most unlikely candidate.

Trump’s team also announced Tuesday that Seema Verma has been chosen to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

He’s putting people on notice that “eventually we are going to have higher interest rates and that’s something that this country is going to need to deal with”.