Washington’s corridors of power are abuzz this week as news emerges that Dan Katz, the U.S. Treasury Department’s chief of staff, is expected to take on the influential role of first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This high-profile move, reported by AFP and corroborated by several other outlets, comes at a time of both internal upheaval at the Treasury and simmering controversy surrounding its top officials.
Katz, a Yale graduate with a background in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and a stint as a senior economics fellow at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, is no stranger to the upper echelons of economic policy. According to AFP, he has longstanding professional ties with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, having worked with him both in government and as a consultant to Bessent’s hedge fund. Katz also served as a senior official during President Donald Trump’s first administration, a detail that underscores his alignment with the current administration’s international economic agenda.
The anticipated appointment follows the August departure of Gita Gopinath, who left the IMF’s number-two post to return to academia at Harvard University. As the U.S. is the IMF’s largest shareholder, tradition holds that Washington nominates the institution’s first deputy managing director, even as the managing director slot typically goes to a European. Yet, as The New York Times notes, Katz’s expected elevation is not without its critics; he is not a trained economist, a fact that has raised some eyebrows within the global financial community.
While the White House and Treasury Department have remained tight-lipped, with a Treasury spokesperson declining comment and the IMF stating only that the selection process is ongoing, the atmosphere is thick with speculation. The timing is sensitive: the IMF is currently tasked with helping nations weather persistent inflation and sluggish growth. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has expressed skepticism about the direction of international economic institutions. In a pointed April speech, Secretary Bessent declared, “The I.M.F. has suffered from mission creep. The I.M.F. was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender and social issues.”
Katz’s relatively low public profile belies a career marked by both policy influence and controversy. As reported by The New York Times, his tenure at Treasury included a January episode in which he emailed colleagues about pausing USAID payments to comply with President Trump’s executive order halting foreign aid. “To the extent permitted by law, we would like to implement the pause as soon as possible in order to ensure that we are doing our role to comply with the E.O.,” Katz wrote in an internal message. His involvement in such sensitive matters has landed him in court filings related to lawsuits challenging the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to personal data, as he helped oversee DOGE’s work within Treasury.
The expected shakeup at the IMF comes against a backdrop of notable staff turnover at the Treasury itself. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender abruptly resigned last month, and Billy Long was removed as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Even Bessent’s top spokeswoman, the assistant secretary for public affairs, left her post in July. These departures have fueled speculation about the department’s stability and direction as Bessent now also oversees the IRS.
But perhaps the most headline-grabbing drama centers on Bessent himself. According to Bloomberg and The Daily Beast, Bessent is under scrutiny for having declared two different homes—one in Bedford Hills, New York, and another in Provincetown, Massachusetts—as his “principal residence” on the same day back in 2007. Bank of America, which handled the mortgages, later confirmed both were secondary residences and stated that no rules were broken. Bessent’s lawyer dismissed the controversy as “nonsensical.”
The situation is strikingly similar to the ongoing dispute involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Cook, who signed mortgages for homes in Ann Arbor and Atlanta in 2021, is fighting removal from her Fed post over allegations of mortgage fraud—charges she denies. Courts have so far blocked President Trump from firing her, and Cook recently scored a legal victory allowing her to continue working at the Fed while the case winds through the courts. Bessent, for his part, has suggested Cook’s potential guilt, telling Fox News, “We haven’t heard her say ‘I didn’t do it.’ She just keeps saying the president can’t remove her.”
The intrigue doesn’t end there. The Daily Beast describes a heated confrontation between Bessent and Bill Pulte, a top housing finance official and a well-known Trump ally. During a dinner at the Executive Branch, a club co-owned by Donald Trump Jr., Bessent reportedly threatened to punch Pulte in the face after a dispute over Pulte’s conversations with the president. “Why the f--- are you talking to the president about me? F--- you. I’m gonna punch you in your f------g face,” Bessent was quoted as saying. Bessent later downplayed the incident, telling MSNBC’s Squawk Box, “Treasury secretaries dating back to Alexander Hamilton have a history of dueling.”
All this internal drama has played out as the Trump administration uses similar mortgage controversies to challenge officials like Cook. Ironically, Bessent’s own mortgage filings mirror the very allegations being leveled at her. Yet, as Politico and Bloomberg point out, there are key differences: Cook signed her own filings with two different lenders, while Bessent’s were signed by his lawyer with a single bank that acknowledged his real living situation. Still, both cases have become political flashpoints, with the White House and Pulte’s office declining to comment on Bessent’s filings.
For his part, Dan Katz has managed to keep a lower profile amid the storm. He travels regularly with Bessent to international meetings and has focused on policy work, including co-authoring a paper last year that called for major changes to Federal Reserve governance. He also previously ran an investment fund aimed at offering alternatives to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) funds, focusing instead on jobs, security, and growth. As a certified sommelier, Katz’s resume is anything but typical for a top IMF official.
As the IMF prepares for a leadership transition, the world will be watching closely. The institution faces the daunting task of maintaining global financial stability at a time when the U.S. administration is pressing for major reforms and its own economic leaders are embroiled in personal and political controversy. Whether Katz’s expected appointment will usher in a new era of American influence at the IMF—or simply add another layer to the unfolding drama in Washington—remains to be seen.
One thing is certain: in the high-stakes world of international finance and U.S. politics, the only constant is change.