White House Weighing Sovereign Wealth Fund Plan From Bessent, Lutnick
The Treasury and Commerce departments have completed their proposal for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, which the White House is now considering.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Feb. 3 directing the agencies to draw up a plan for a sovereign wealth fund within 90 days, which elapsed this week. A White House spokesman told Bisnow the plan is now under review.
But it appears no decision is imminent, with the White House rejecting parts of the proposal developed under Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, CBS reports.
“In accordance with President Trump’s executive order, the Treasury and Commerce Departments have formulated plans for a Sovereign Wealth Fund, but no final decisions have yet been made,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. “The Administration remains committed to using every tool available to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard America’s national and economic security.”
The White House declined to comment on its initial feedback on the plans.
Sovereign wealth funds are typically major investors in commercial real estate and have grown in prominence since the 2008 financial crisis. Those funds are most often established in nations with large current-account surpluses that come from natural resource exports.
The proposal Trump requested was expected to include recommendations for funding mechanisms, investment strategies, fund structure and a governance model.
But CBS reported that Trump officials were unhappy with certain parts of the proposal, citing an unnamed source. A Treasury Department spokesperson declined to comment.
It remains unclear how a U.S. sovereign wealth fund would be funded or how it would spend fund dollars, although Trump has mooted using a U.S. fund to buy the TikTok app from its Chinese parent company.
Some of the world’s best-known funds are financed by gas and oil, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norges Bank, which manages the Norwegian fund, is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with $1.8T in assets, roughly 5% of which is in real estate.
The Trump administration has pointed to the potential of monetizing government holdings of $5.7T in assets, including $1.3T in property and equipment. Trump has said a U.S. fund could rival Saudi Arabia's $925B in assets under management, while Bessent said the U.S. has “fantastic assets” that could be used for “revenue-generating opportunities.”
Maddy McCarty contributed to this story.
