President-elect Donald Trump nominated University of Maryland finance professor Michael Faulkender Wednesday as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury.
If confirmed, Faulkender is set to be the second-ranking official in the department behind Scott Bessent, Trump’s secretary nominee. He is slated to join university alum and chief of staff Susie Wiles in the Trump administration.
“Mike is a distinguished economist and policy practitioner who will drive our America First agenda,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media platform. “He will help [Bessent] usher in a new Golden Age for the United States by delivering a Great Economic Boom for all Americans.”
Faulkender serves as the dean’s finance professor in this university’s business school. He teaches courses in the master’s of business administration and executive master’s of business administration programs at this university.
Faulkender also became the chief economist of the America First Police Institute — a nonprofit supporting Trump’s policy agenda — in 2022.
[Donald Trump selects UMD alum Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff]
The Northwestern University graduate joined this university in 2008. He later served as the associate dean of master’s programs in the business school in 2017 and 2018.
In 2019, Trump tapped Faulkender as the assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during his first presidential term.
Faulkender helped negotiate the $2.2 trillion CARES Act during the COVID-19 pandemic in his tenure. The act provided $1,200 stimulus checks to American adults and included assistance for families and businesses, according to the Treasury Department’s website.
He also played a key role in implementing the Paycheck Protection Program. The program, which was established by the CARES Act, provided small businesses with funds for eight weeks of payroll costs that included benefits, the website said.
Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.
