McCormick Said to Be Trump Front-Runner for Defense Deputy
- Bridgewater president would be deputy secretary for Defense
- Hedge fund executive served in George W. Bush administration
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Hedge fund manager and former Army officer David McCormick is the front-runner to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s deputy defense secretary, according to three people familiar with the presidential transition.
McCormick, president of Bridgewater Associates Inc., the world’s biggest hedge fund, was eyed earlier as a possible Treasury secretary, a post that ultimately went to former hedge fund investor Steve Mnuchin. If confirmed by the Senate, McCormick will help Trump’s Pentagon nominee, retired General James Mattis, with day-to-day management of a bureaucracy with about two million active-duty and civilian employees and a budget of more than $600 billion a year that’s immersed in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.