Trump reportedly chooses businessman Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary

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 has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.