Trump reportedly chooses businessman Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary

Wilbur Ross.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is planning to name businessman Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary, a transition official told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

Ross is a longtime ally of Trump's — when bondholders were angry over a possible missed payment by Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City and discussed seizing control of it, Ross said the property was worth more with Trump still around, and helped put together a plan that kept him in charge. In 2001, Ross purchased several troubled steel companies in the Rust Belt, and after cutting jobs and pensions and making new deals with unions, the mills got back on their feet and he ultimately sold them for a profit.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.